If you didn't know, Chinese harems trapped the concubines in the palace for the rest of their lives and forced them to be loyal to the emperor on the threat of execution. In the Ming dynasty in particular several emperors even ordered all their concubines executed upon their own deaths rather than setting them free to be with other men. This is applauding him being the one emperor to NOT TAKE GLORIFIED SEX SLAVES and holding himself to the same standard of loyalty as expected of his empress instead of abusing his privileges. This is not a diss on ethical polyamory, which is impossible under these circumstances! I mean I literally wrote a book with a polyam protagonist! (Edited to sound less aggressive lmao. It's not your fault if you don't understand how fucked up Chinese harems were)
They did at least have a better deal if they mothered the crown prince. They could be a dowager. Unless they were from the Northern Wei dynasty, in which case they would be forced to commit suicide.
Weren't the concubines important for regional stability? It's my understanding that neighbouring realms would send them concubines in exchange for favours.
Emperor HongZi: - Only have 1 wife - No war in his reigh - No dumb reform,Famine and rebellion have minor effect during his reign - Die peacefully instead of getting assassinated or killed - Still manage to get a healthy son to continue his dynasty A GigaChad!
@@lordmuhehe4605for a Chinese emperor… that’s kinda old lol(probably because he wasn’t having sex with a bunch of women who could’ve had sti’s and also had no one to assassinate him lol)
@@chixkgoddess8499Stop spreading misinformation. The lifespan back then was because of infant mortality, people didn’t just drop dead at 30, the stats are skewed because children and babies often didn’t survive till adulthood.
Hongzi was like a pretty chill emperor tbh he didn’t really care much for conquest or military glory loved his wife and his only surviving son due to lacking familial love as child
That's because of his childhood. He was a victim of palace intrigues. His mother was a lowly imperial concubine and he grew up outside of imperial protection. He married his wife before ascension and trusted only his wife
So what you're saying is that he grew up smart and realized anyone who offered/was offered to be in his harem was nothing more than a gold digger and/or had plans to make their kid the next emperor. So he chose to skip all the potential bullshit that comes from this and remained in a loving relationship with a single wife and one son who'd succeed the throne without any political issue/bullshit? That just sounds like a win/win.
@@ianhunter363 i'm sure that's part of it but i would assume just as powerful is his knowledge that his mother was a concubine. i think to most mentally sane people they would find the idea repulsive if they knew that's what happened to their mother.
Imagine how loved and special his wife must have felt knowing this powerful man could have as many women as he wanted and no one would bat an eyelash and she would have to endure it, but he wanted only her. I hope she felt cherished.
Partners are for kids not to make them feel special... it was not happening in 2024, it is normal now for a woman to be selfcentered and ignoring the whole point of the relationship... His line ended on his son as he only got one and this son died young-> one can wonder why he was so shortsighted...
@@Bialy_1 so you are the type of guy that puts extending your line over your own happiness and the happiness of someone you love? I'll bet you're single.
@@andis60 You're not an emperor or a king so shut up. Every emperor (or anyone for that matter) of that time value their family heritage and line more than making a women feel special. Stop using 2024 simping to judge them.
@@akeemovic 😂😂 dude I will say anything I want. Emperors are still people and fall in love. If this guy only wanted his wife and no one else, there's nothing wrong with that. Not every guy wants to fuck every vagina. Some are happy with one.
Polygamies were pretty much a no go for emperors throughout the Middle East, Africa and even Asia, after the largest harem of all time (King Solomon’s Harem which included almost 1000 women from around the world), even though it wasn’t illegal or forced to not be done, polygamies were pretty much not recommended
Well people like that are often of higher intelligence and less looking for glory, hence often monogamous people tend to have a higher IQ over people who want polygamy are a little lower, due to the inability to override the old caveman instincts.
If this was a Chinese isekai movie, he would definitely be some decent modern dude that got reincarnated into an emperor and said "I'm not doing this medieval shit"
@@sofiashmykova129 That's "how it worked" 299 times, sweet cheeks. It takes a lot of talent and effort to deserve your man when he's an emperor. Time to grow up.
@@DrCruelI wanna know what kind of internalized misogyny you gotta have to not understand the concept of love being real and unconditional. First of all women didn't even have rights, the emperor Isn't necesarily the greatest partner of all time because of his power or his money, and trying to smash everything that moves Isn't very *worthy* in itself to begin with, the wives didn't have a very worthy husband either if he was having children with another 15 women. There's so many things wrong with your thought process i can't even wrap my gead around it. Literally what the actual f- are you even yapping about. Did you read the pinned comment?😭 Get a grip.
He lacked familial love in his childhood. Not wanting to give pain to anyone in his life as he becomes an emperor, he decided to DO what he needed to do. To be a good husband, a father, and a good emperor.
this is actually straight out of the cnovel i've read, i wonder if the author was inspired by emperor hongzhi, because the ml was sick of not being able to call his father as "father" and not able to expecting him home with his mum like normal families
@@twinkles5114I was about to say that. Most of them seem to be unable to break the same cycle of betrayal and toxicity and instead blame all of their bad behaviors on it. The emperor was an exemplary human being and a true man!
@@XiranJayZhaogiven the choice and without modern sensibilities, most men would choose to have more wives. This isn't a purely Chinese problem, but one that has affected every civilization including the West in the past. Rich men get more wives, poor men died alone, which is a problem for both sexes too I guess your content isn't meant to be sinophobic but you'll definitely get 1000x the views thanks to all of the China-haters on CZcams
so, if you were a wealthy man in ancient China, and a dozen beautiful women lined up outside your door and said - please let us in, we would be happy to share you, and give you beautiful children. Also, your wife is on board, as this is very normal. Just please feed us and give us a place to sleep so we don't starve and freeze in the mud. The ethical decision is to tell these women, or are QUITE willing to take the job, to go die, you've already got a wife? Is that really your answer?
@@brianjohnson4022Lol, what are you saying??..you don't even know the history. In those times, the people of the palace would choose beautiful women in their kingdom to work as a concubine for the king. If you are chosen you have no right to say no. Your life has been decided and you will have to work as a concubine till death. You will have to sleep with the king even if you don't want to. And yes, no man like this deserves true love or a beautiful family.
@@daizz5500 you understand that most of the people lived in squalor, were born on a dirt floor, lived on the edge of death, and died on a dirt floor? Is that not correct? Being 'forced' to sleep with a single dude while you and all of your children are kept in the greatest comfort the technology of the time allowed.. sounds just awful. Such a raw deal, while your ugly cousin gets to be 'free' in a mud hut with her children a bad day away from death. Are you for real?
@@brianjohnson4022 concubines were forced into that position, they were basically sex slaves that would have been executed. I think any person with a good moral compass wouldn't say "Okay!" especially not someone with a loving wife and someone that had the upbringing he had (apparently his mother was a concubine)
@@FerretKibble Depends I can understand the need for a concubine/mistress as a ruler as you need a heir and sometime the wife can't provide one, and not having a heir can lead to wars of succession which happened quite a few times in China's history BTW. But the problem is those harems tended to be far to big and led to the exact same problem, main wife doesn't have a son but multiple concubines did leading to a fight for the throne.
- "So, how many sex slaves would you like sir? Last emperor had 10" - "Oh nono thanks, i love my wife" - "But sir, nobody has ever in china history declined at least one concubine, what if your wife gets angry , u need backup" - "I love my wife"
Actually he didn't do much of anything while he ruled. It's also said that he was stricken with a small... Ship. One of the main reasons he didn't have many children. So yea, I guess he was ok....
Fr. Sounds like hell. Never ending problems and headaches. I can already picture them pulling each others hair out and constantly scheming against each other and the emperor and breaking into ever changing groups who hate each other but also “love each other” but always split up into sides over a never ending litany of little issues and miniscule gestures or remarks and constantly dragging the emperor in to get involved in pointless drama or to subtly gossip about meaningless nonsense to and act coy about their intentions any time each one of them is ever alone with him. And that’s literally just one small part-I’m hardly scratching the surface here on all of the terrible bullshit I can imagine just off the top of my head about dealing with this in real life. Just wait until kids and family get involved. Imagine what would inevitably happen when they start comparing each other’s gifts. Imagine what they would try to do to the girl you genuinely fall in love with. And just wait until the emperor has to deal with a serious crisis and looks to be in a position of weakness. Wait until they inevitably start getting involved with other men and giving a back door to potential rivals. I could go on forever, what an awful experience to be involved in. You would have to have an iron fist or you’d be destroyed by your own harem lmao. It would literally probably actually be better for everybody for the emperor to just screw random girls instead of starting relationships with all of them and bringing them into his home. It’s the type of thing immature horny young guys dream about but would massively regret because it sounded so much better in their head than it would actually be in real life. Actually managing to get with some girls for yourself would immediately teach you how terrible and exhausting a harem of them would be-ESPECIALLY as a rich, important (and political!) figure! You would legitimately be at risk of yourself and your kids and loved ones being figuratively and literally stabbed in the back 24/7
The thing is that the presence of concubines often had a political motivation behind them: noble families who wanted to get a foot in the court and influence the emperor through the daughters they inserted in the harem. Needless to say, many powerful families would feel frustrated/insulted by the emperor if he ignored his concubines; and the emperor's wife could very well expect to be the subject of political intrigues and assassination attempts. This loyalty required a lot of bravery from both spouses.
To be fair, the Empress, and also other concubines were always, constantly at risk of assassination and sabotage from within the harem and the powers that stand to gain from the harem in-fighting. Like 90% of palace dramas include at least one plot from a favoured concubine against an Empress, or a less favoured concubine against a more favoured one. Especially if they're A) trying to be the first to bear a son or B) trying to promote their own son to crown prince over others So brave or not, being "honoured with the privilege" of a marriage to the Emperor, your life was never, truly out of danger. No matter what, having a son, not having a son, getting pregnant, not getting pregnant, everything is grounds for an attack. Failing to gain the Emperor's attention, bear a healthy heir, and raise them into the next Emperor is failing at your position and puts you in danger of of getting killed and replaced. But doing all those things also puts an additional target on your, and your childrens backs. And some Emperors have even been turned against their own mothers and had them killed too. Most princes competed for the privilege if being Emperor, and were raised into the role, but the women given to them to marry had no choice but to be brave and die anyway.
@@pvp6077 Hold on friend. There is no circumstantial evidence supporting that concubine’s lives were in any imminent harm from someone other than the emperor himself. Many dramas help to fuel this rhetoric, because most people assume that the history in historical drama means nonfiction, instead of fantasy inspired by history. Propaganda surrounding some of China’s most powerful female leaders, like Wu Zetian, & Empress Dowager Cixi also fuels this myth. But contrary to what is believed, historical recordings show that concubines lives were mostly boring. Plots & schemes weren’t practical for the average concubine. A. Because of numbers, there were too many women in the haram during the early to mid harem eras. Thousands of women and multiple scheming. No possible way that the system would’ve lasted for 2,000 years if assassination attempts were happening commonly between the royal women of china. To add, majority of the concubines only ever saw the emperor once, during the wife selection; And being that a child is paramount for the purpose of politically climbing the ladder. The entire ordeal would be quite redundant. B. The level of extensive monitoring each concubine had. The higher your rank the more staff you accumulated. So they were tight knit. C. Education. Women of china weren’t educated in politics. So most women, with an exception of a few, wouldn’t have had the bandwidth to understand how to scheme politically. Wu Zetian was an exception being that she was favored, and often tasked with court duties. Cixi’s situation was probably similar to Wu’s but with an exception that she never knew how to fully read or write properly. D. law. It was illegal for the harem to partake in jealousy, anger, hate, violence, fighting or punishing. To add scheming & killing, federal crimes, in a government where the actions of one affected the many. Her crimes would affect her entire family. Which killing of a royal, I believe was grounds for Nine Familial Extermination. The genocide of Nine generations of your family. E. The emperor gets the last and final say. Some of china’s most powerful women were able to acquire their power via their connection and proximity to the emperor. As of the case of other women in history. Doesn’t matter how cunning and sly you’re. Doesn’t matter if you have a son. If the emperor dies without setting your son as heir, or you as regent. Then it was all for naught. Most harm that came to concubines came from the government trying to prevent power grasps EX: killing of concubines after the emperor death. dowager concubines without children forced to become nuns after the emperor’s death.
@@keve5534 this comment demonstrates some hilarious ignorance for vastly different cultural attitudes at the time. Too lazy? For these families, it was considered an honour to have their daughter high up in court. Just think of how many nobles were sent off as gifts to marry other people in Europe.
@@lordmuhehe4605 most people in that time period died around that age. Merlin, you know the guy we know as being an old old wizard? Like, the guy that literally built the idea of wizards living a long time, because you'd have to be a wizard to live that long? Yeah, he died at 41.
@@lordmuhehe4605 True, but to be fair, a lot of bad emperors died pretty young as well. Emperor Yang of Sui is seen as one of the worst tyrants in Chinese history partially because his military expeditions brought the state to bankruptcy, and he only ruled 14 years and died at 49.
@@ncrest4365child mortality skewed those numbers a lot. If someone in ancient times made it past the age of 10, he had a very good chance of living to his 60’s.
And he literally ended up being way more successful than all the other emperors who were getting assassinated etc. he made his country wealthy and happy. Dude was a perfect emperor who did right by his people instead of being a selfish prick looking for instant gratification at all time like all the other emperors.
And he proved he was right, perhaps being dedicated to only one woman leaves actual time to be a good Emperor and perhaps also leaves time to make sure the successor is competent.
He seems like he was a good husband and good father. Giving his son the love he lacked as a child and committing to his wife despite the societal pressure to have concubines at the time. All of this while also having majority of the empire at peace as well! Good on him!
@@Zerpderp0ah yes that’s all you need. Do everything your wife wants and magically everything will be perfect. What a dumb thing to take away from this story
@@Zerpderp0 don't worry everyone didn't take you literally and recognizes the widely known saying of "happy wife happy life". For one it's mostly a joke and two it obviously isn't saying be an indentured servant to your tyrant of a wife but every married man knows if your wife is happy your life is probably easier lol
@@ethanhart5237 some people seem allergic to the idea that one should make their partner happy to the best of their abilities. Regardless of gender a relationship only works when both parties are happy to see their partner happy. Being jealous of their happiness is selfish and a relationship killer. A relationship should prop each other up
How ppl in general behave in relationships tell you a lot about how they behave in life. In business, in how they treat their family, animals, strangers, etc. Double for when you are the traditionally more powerful gender or the gender that gets more say over political or financial matters. Society has traditionally always claimed for whatever reason selected, that men need more than one woman. A man with complete power who selects to be with only one woman forever.....is a man I would have followed anywhere as a subject. THAT is a disciplined man with a sensitive conscience and a deep mind.
I'd always wondered if there was one who actually managed to stay true to his wife. I'm glad there's at least one Emperor of China who can be held up as a good husband.
@@aag2139the harem system where the women are locked in the palace for the rest of their lives and would be put to death if caught with another man should not be compared to polyamory
@@Roko-jb5hlmore like restrictions on basic freedoms. Amorphous blobs where people are free to pursue what makes them happy is better than strict rules that force them into unhappy lifestyles
@@Roko-jb5hl You are a very strange person man. Comments like yours make it easy to see how human beings will cape for evil under the guise of rationality. Creepy.
@@Roko-jb5hlYou think being forced to be trapped with a man inside of a castle with the punishment of death if you don’t abide by his rules, is better than having the freedom to make your own decisions about your sexual partners?
He looks so kind to omg. Why do other drawings of men from that time look like villian with super sharp eyes and evil grins but this is the first painting I've seen with a guy with a warm smile 😭😫
Totally! Not only does he look younger here than most other Emperors in their portraits, he's also decently good-looking by modern standards. Honestly, you'd expect _this_ to be the image of an actor playing the role, while the real-life guy is anything but handsome, lol!
@@mirophew7164 Yeah. Typical spoiled brat who neglected responsibilities. He didn’t rule and had lavish lifestyle. He had more harem than he could feed, resulting those women starving to death in the confinement of palace. And he died meaninglessly at a young age. He got drunk, fell to the river, got sick, then died.
@@mirophew7164 it's pretty natural. Good times breed bad people. IMO it's because good people don't often make good parents, much less in nobility, bc giving your kids all you didn't have ends up spoiling them and while love does not spoil people, money certainly does. You think you have a good kid bc they should've seen you be a good person but they didn't process that and instead listened to anyone but their "soft" parents. With royals and the sort it's especially bad bc there's always people conspiring who think there should always be a war against something if not the entire rest of the world.
One of the reasons why harems WERE a thing was due to children..... it was in case of the other children dying off and to also have a loyal right-hand man to the current crown prince..... although in Chinas case it kinda failed due to there being MANY child emperors which was..... BAD oh yea and it was also to solidify alliances
Fun Fact: his advisors complaint his monogamous life bcs fearing he might not produce promising candidates of heirs, but once he has a son his advisors stopped complaining
I just read up on him genuinely his reign was apparently a really chill time to live Plus from what I'm reading he was not only loyal to his wife but quite affectionate
I don't understand the diss tbh. Man was loyal (one wife all life), levelheaded (didn't get involved in palace intrigues or dirty politics), ingenious (invented toothbrush), and peaceful (no bloody conquests or wars). Most importantly, he's an emperor ruling an entire ancient nation with his equally standing empress wife (who must've taken the symbolically hugest steel balls to maintain her side of things with an untouched harem full of imprisoned noblewomen who had nowhere else to go but still put in by their families for political reasons). They both helmed the whole empire with just ruling. You got to be stupid to say such a regal and respectful husband a mere simp. He's not a salivating foolish dog doing her biddings.
@@nestephThis is not how it works, United Kingdom never had an emperor and at some point it were the greatest empire on earth, thus their king were more proeminent than any other emperor. King or emperor is just a matter of political adjustment.
@@nikolaszoni7257 the Hanovers chose not to go by Imperial titles, they had cousins who had imperial titles it could have been seen as a challenge. This is also an outlier, His Imperial Magesty has always been higher than His Royal Magesty
@@nikolaszoni7257 that's not how this works. Just because they decided to not be formally titled as emperors doesn't mean they weren't technically emperors.
Ok, but he died at 34, every source says he bowed to the whims and crazy luxuries of his wife and unworthy in-laws, and his son took the empire in a completely different direction than Confucian teachings. He got a temple and a holiday, but everyone's learning about this dude from a web hottie. On the other hand, 1 in every 200 people are related to Genghis Khan. Genghis's name is immortal because he clapped everything in sight, sexually and militarily, and he lived to be 65 in a time when a cut could kill you.
He's decision to stay monogamous was actually pretty smart. Most of those concubines would have been the daughters of important noblemen, so you can imagine what a poisonous situation this created within the harem. This way sleeping with a woman became more of a political choice then anything else and many of these emperors were probably manipulated without even realising it. So he spared himself from a lot of BS by staying monogamous...
While there have been many good and even great emperors in China, some of whom even brought about golden ages, Hongzi was the best husband out of them all and an all around good dude. He was chill, loved his wife and son and maintained an age of stability for his people. A good emperor, a good husband, a good father and a good guy
@@HazeEmry I was quickly reading the comments so I first read your comment as "King Gengish had the same style " And imagined Gengihis Khan with it 😂😂😂
Ming Empire was the best dynasty of China, no matter what CCP revisionists want to say, it was the first government to implement a free market, allowing peasants to use resources around them to create and produce to make their communities better
What an interesting correlation, a man who exhibits enough strength & integrity to honour his wife also happens to make an excellent & successful leader 🤔
Also, a man with one wife and one or two kids would be more likely to take good care of his family. Mortality was already high, but one core family with a good father had better chances of raising quality children to responsible adulthood
This was especially impressive cos the harem of an emperor literally represents politics. The status of nobles can be represented if not influenced by their daughters being married to the emperor, so officials did pressure emperors to create a harem or just straight up shove ladies into the harem to "appease the emperor".
Men shouting from the top of their lungs screaming “all women over exaggerate when they say they’ve been treated wrongly for so many years. It was never really that bad for them. They’ve always been treated fairly.”…… Men, why?!
Because we men ignore evidence when it's against us. Why would you accept such evidence? It only makes your case weaker. So be like a law enforcement agency and only selectively pick evidence that fits your narrative, discard the rest because fuck em! -Men
The only major setback in his life was probably spoiling his son too much. He was a good emperor but his son, in contrast, was a terrible one. Probably due to lack of competition for the throne. The Ming Dynasty's decline was hastened during his son's reign.
If I’m not mistaken u posted this on instagram…AND the amount of people defending this tradition was actually insane and scary… glad CZcams people are more sane 😅
Instagram is such a sh!thole 😂 honestly whenever I read CZcams comments I find myself enjoying the conversations, as opposed to reading Instagram comments which usually makes me feel sad and depressed. It's like a slap that wakes you up to the reality of this world. No thanks! I'll enjoy my blissful ignorance here on CZcams.
@@MrFish609 if you know anything about it, then you’d know its not at all a matter perspective, rather than just plain morally disgusting and horrible to force women or anyone for that matter to be a sex slave and only needed for someone’s pleasure.
@@Jawminn83 now that is an interesting perspective bcus it is one sided, okay in the time of the emperor what other job/title that would have more benefits than concubines in term of safety and security if you wnna bring in ‘Morality’ , don’t you think it would kinda useless bcus morality changes over time
I'm amazed how through China's entire imperial history...ONLY ONE emperor was decent to be fair and treat his wife as a wife and not as "another woman in the harem(regardless of her status in the harem)".
That's just male nature lol, monogamy is just a social technology to keep your society relatively stable (and even then you mean be pretty stable with polygamy).
@@Isthisjoebiden ahh yes, all those people outside of modern societies which would encourage that narcissism engaged in polygamy because of narcissism lol. Also you kinda need discipline to run a harem
Other fun facts about being a concubine include; not being able to refuse the Emperor when he called for you, being forced to be washed and groomed to HIS standards and liking, your children being his property to trade with (or if its a boy you'll have to protect them from the other concubines with boys), sometimes you weren't killed but you were like never allowed to go be with someone else after the emperor died instead they shaved your head and sent you to be a buddhist nun (commonly under guard), the number of concubines sometimes meant that you lived in a sort of dorm room instead of having your own private space and servants waiting on you hand and foot kinda deal, etc etc etc Edit to address the comment below Just because you are now food secure and have medical care and nice clothes does not make up for being forcible removed from your home for the rest of your existence. You will NEVER see your family again (if they're normal, because as you said everyone was flat broke and starving so ain't nobody going to visit their daughters in the palace) and you will never see your friends again. You might make new friends but your life now belongs to the emperor, forever, no matter if you want it or not. Obviously there would be people happy to take this chance, ditch their families and towns and live out their days in the palace. But there were obviously also people not happy about being taken away for selections. Don't pretend that food security makes up for completely losing your identity. Second Edit: Honestly the sexism is wild here. The gender division is so clear. The men say "they should be thankful for their luxurious lifestyles and stop trying to be so promiscuous" and the women saying "wow what a horrible life. What an icky gilded cage. Id rather marry locally..." So just in general let's be aware that this is a gender issue. If you're a man maybe shut up since you weren't the one being sold and listen to the women who say 'wow how horrific that must have been'. Being sold to a husband was never a threat to you so why would you look down on it? To us it is still an active threat. So shut it. Shout it from the rooftops a gilded cage is still a cage! White rice doesn't make up for being raped by a stranger! Nice clothes don't make up for losing your whole existence and identity! The warmth of friends family and loved ones can't be replaced by exotic fruits! Omg P.S. court etiquette required you to remain absolutely still and silent while the emperor was raping you. No crying and certainly no enjoying it. It was not a fun experience like you might see in the dramas. Usually it would have been the girls first time too so it would have hurt quite badly and still...totally silent and perfectly still so the emperor could use you like a little sex toy/incubator. Maybe for you the idea of being raped and sold isn't so scary if you don't have to work hard labor anymore. But as a person who has been forced and has moved far away from their family I can say it sounds truly horrific. The isolation and fear never stop.
And better standard of living and luxuries than 99% of the men and women from the era ever will have and free medical treatment and care by the best doctors of the era and servants for service. You people are way to hung on the struggles of the top 0.1% of histories people and women when they had a better life than any other commoner ever will. Talk about the actual struggles in the era more and the struggles of the actual commoner woman.
If only more Emperors were like this one. No war in his reign, was a loyal husband and brave partner, and reportedly a pretty decent father. (Compared to his predecessors and successors)
It was pretty peaceful during his reign. China is a large mass of land and all it takes is one power hungry dragon to be born for a age of war to start. 😅 Dude got lucky af.
If you look at how alot of the women today flock towards the famous and rich, it seems that women are totally fine with non-monogamous partners as long as they can have their materialistic needs met.
You didn't mention why. His mother was a concubine, and one of his father's wives or concubine tried to assassinate him and his mother in an attempt to secure a better place for herself and her son.
I assume that story involves Consort Wan being the perpetrator of the schemes against Hongzhi. That story is probably false then since it also states that Consort Wan killed all of Emperor Chenghua's sons besides Hongzhi which didn't happen considering a majority of those sons (including the father of Emperor Jiajing) survived to adulthood.
@@SolitaryBee-wd5wf Chinese history is not the most consistent, considering that multiple Dynasties had the bad habit of destroying the written records of the previous ones. Hell the Communist probably did this the most, so their history was sometimes reduced to oral history/ legends, and then someone would write them down later. From what is known, that the Emperor was Monogamous, it is reasonable to believe that one of his mother's..... Sister wives for lack of a better label, was involved in an assassination conspiracy, either alone, or with other sister wives, to kill the Future Emperor, and probably managed to kill some of his older brothers.
If you didn't know, Chinese harems trapped the concubines in the palace for the rest of their lives and forced them to be loyal to the emperor on the threat of execution. In the Ming dynasty in particular several emperors even ordered all their concubines executed upon their own deaths rather than setting them free to be with other men. This is applauding him being the one emperor to NOT TAKE GLORIFIED SEX SLAVES and holding himself to the same standard of loyalty as expected of his empress instead of abusing his privileges. This is not a diss on ethical polyamory, which is impossible under these circumstances! I mean I literally wrote a book with a polyam protagonist!
(Edited to sound less aggressive lmao. It's not your fault if you don't understand how fucked up Chinese harems were)
They did at least have a better deal if they mothered the crown prince. They could be a dowager. Unless they were from the Northern Wei dynasty, in which case they would be forced to commit suicide.
I love it! You are awesome! And I thoroughly enjoy your content! Love Chinese culture….period
Weren't the concubines important for regional stability? It's my understanding that neighbouring realms would send them concubines in exchange for favours.
@@Roko-jb5hlprobably ethical as in consenting without coercion nor threat of execution
@@RollingCalf The concubines themselves still had no say in that though.
Emperor HongZi:
- Only have 1 wife
- No war in his reigh
- No dumb reform,Famine and rebellion have minor effect during his reign
- Die peacefully instead of getting assassinated or killed
- Still manage to get a healthy son to continue his dynasty
A GigaChad!
@@lordmuhehe4605that's the average lifespan back in the days, a lot of them died even younger.
@@lordmuhehe4605for a Chinese emperor… that’s kinda old lol(probably because he wasn’t having sex with a bunch of women who could’ve had sti’s and also had no one to assassinate him lol)
@@lordmuhehe4605Most Ming emperor died young, I think over half of them never made it past 40.
Though the line ended with his son as he died young and didn't have any heirs.
@@chixkgoddess8499Stop spreading misinformation. The lifespan back then was because of infant mortality, people didn’t just drop dead at 30, the stats are skewed because children and babies often didn’t survive till adulthood.
Hongzi was like a pretty chill emperor tbh he didn’t really care much for conquest or military glory loved his wife and his only surviving son due to lacking familial love as child
Oh!
He was a pretty swell dude
@@XiranJayZhaoI read this as swole at first
@@MysteryDisc emotionally swole
The wife guy Emperor
He's also one of the few Chinese emperors that didn't start famines,wars, and rebellions that would kill 100m+ people
Pretty sure most of them didn't kill 100 million people. The math just doesn't add up.
Love is the answer…
i mean, he had 299+ less mouths to feed, so...
So what? Elaborate or shut the fuck up.
So you are saying that he is not a real Chinese emperor?
That's because of his childhood. He was a victim of palace intrigues. His mother was a lowly imperial concubine and he grew up outside of imperial protection. He married his wife before ascension and trusted only his wife
So what you're saying is that he grew up smart and realized anyone who offered/was offered to be in his harem was nothing more than a gold digger and/or had plans to make their kid the next emperor. So he chose to skip all the potential bullshit that comes from this and remained in a loving relationship with a single wife and one son who'd succeed the throne without any political issue/bullshit? That just sounds like a win/win.
@@ianhunter363 i'm sure that's part of it but i would assume just as powerful is his knowledge that his mother was a concubine. i think to most mentally sane people they would find the idea repulsive if they knew that's what happened to their mother.
Add in someore fun fact: hes also invented toothbrush to keep good oral hygiene.
So not only is he a loyal husband, he also cleans up well.
And my respect grow even more.
Okay, where's the statue built in his honour?
the guy took a gamble with 1 wife, gotta give him credit for that.
@@bobbob-vw4cc yeah especially since murder was the trendy hot thing in that era
youre saying the man was so disturbed with everyone's gross teeth and foul breath so he made a groundbreaking invention?! 🤣
I went to google him and apparently he was a pretty good emperor too!
He gives justinian vibes to me for some reason
Cool!
no actually, i saw him selling fentanyl to kids back in august of 1500
its a pleasant surprise finding a famously enjoyed man from the past to not actually be an ass behind closed doors
@lordmuhehe4605 so did Friedrich the Great, and we still kinda like him in Germany...😅
Imagine how loved and special his wife must have felt knowing this powerful man could have as many women as he wanted and no one would bat an eyelash and she would have to endure it, but he wanted only her. I hope she felt cherished.
She was one of the luckiest women in her time for sure. I hope she had a wonderful and happy marriage with him
Partners are for kids not to make them feel special... it was not happening in 2024, it is normal now for a woman to be selfcentered and ignoring the whole point of the relationship...
His line ended on his son as he only got one and this son died young-> one can wonder why he was so shortsighted...
@@Bialy_1 so you are the type of guy that puts extending your line over your own happiness and the happiness of someone you love? I'll bet you're single.
@@andis60 You're not an emperor or a king so shut up. Every emperor (or anyone for that matter) of that time value their family heritage and line more than making a women feel special.
Stop using 2024 simping to judge them.
@@akeemovic 😂😂 dude I will say anything I want. Emperors are still people and fall in love. If this guy only wanted his wife and no one else, there's nothing wrong with that. Not every guy wants to fuck every vagina. Some are happy with one.
I've read that he hated all the drama that he saw in the previous emperor's harem, so he opted for monogamy.
Polygamies were pretty much a no go for emperors throughout the Middle East, Africa and even Asia, after the largest harem of all time (King Solomon’s Harem which included almost 1000 women from around the world), even though it wasn’t illegal or forced to not be done, polygamies were pretty much not recommended
Yep, this mf had one wife. Not only that, during his rule he made the country rich and everyone happy.
Awwwhh that's so sweet. ❤
Well people like that are often of higher intelligence and less looking for glory, hence often monogamous people tend to have a higher IQ over people who want polygamy are a little lower, due to the inability to override the old caveman instincts.
Why u called him a mf when he only did it with his wife 🤔
@@Lilliz91 can you send me a single study backing any of that up?
@@landonsss8114 I just googled the claims, and there appears to be articles that back them up.
If this was a Chinese isekai movie, he would definitely be some decent modern dude that got reincarnated into an emperor and said "I'm not doing this medieval shit"
Fr lmao
What if that's what actually happened lol 😭
Well, decent modern dudes don’t any respect from women, so I guess the hypocrisy is huge, the good emperor were the harem ones.
Omg imagine this happened fr 😂
@@creefcreef8622 that's pretty much the story of Nobunaga Concerto
This is HongZi. He abides his vows and truly loves his wife. He doesn't start wars and he cares for his people. Be like HongZi.
A worthy man. Low sexual immorality, high level character.
Hongzi: Now hear me out... has anyone considered monogamy?
Imagine 300 emperors and only 1 had a wife worth being faithful to.
that's not how it works.... @@DrCruel
@@sofiashmykova129 That's "how it worked" 299 times, sweet cheeks. It takes a lot of talent and effort to deserve your man when he's an emperor. Time to grow up.
@@DrCruel no
The fact is the emperors didn’t care about there wives and where more interested in their glorified sex toys.
@@DrCruelI wanna know what kind of internalized misogyny you gotta have to not understand the concept of love being real and unconditional.
First of all women didn't even have rights, the emperor Isn't necesarily the greatest partner of all time because of his power or his money, and trying to smash everything that moves Isn't very *worthy* in itself to begin with, the wives didn't have a very worthy husband either if he was having children with another 15 women. There's so many things wrong with your thought process i can't even wrap my gead around it.
Literally what the actual f- are you even yapping about. Did you read the pinned comment?😭
Get a grip.
He lacked familial love in his childhood. Not wanting to give pain to anyone in his life as he becomes an emperor, he decided to DO what he needed to do. To be a good husband, a father, and a good emperor.
Only one in a million men come to such decisions after such childhood
this is actually straight out of the cnovel i've read, i wonder if the author was inspired by emperor hongzhi, because the ml was sick of not being able to call his father as "father" and not able to expecting him home with his mum like normal families
@@alnazdili4691 cnovel name ?
@@twinkles5114I was about to say that. Most of them seem to be unable to break the same cycle of betrayal and toxicity and instead blame all of their bad behaviors on it. The emperor was an exemplary human being and a true man!
he might have been gay
He needs his own animated series with a name like “Hongzi: The Last Loyal Emperor” lol
"Last?" ONLY Loyal emperor 💀
@@saigay386 Lmaoo “the only loyal emperor” it is then 🤣
@@KOUdance An emperor who decided to limit himself to one, which ended with his only son dying young and that was the end of his family legacy...
He might have saved the empire from succession crisis and civil war apart from that wise man indeed
“Wait but didn’t-“ “and actually abide by his vow” “Okay yeah fair.”
Lol you were thinking of Yang Jian and Dugu Qieluo weren't you
I was wondering the same thing, did they vow to be monogamous?
Because breaking your vow is a horrible thing to do.
They did and he broke the vow.
@@XiranJayZhao I was!!!! But Yang Jian messed up during the end
@@XiranJayZhaogiven the choice and without modern sensibilities, most men would choose to have more wives. This isn't a purely Chinese problem, but one that has affected every civilization including the West in the past. Rich men get more wives, poor men died alone, which is a problem for both sexes too
I guess your content isn't meant to be sinophobic but you'll definitely get 1000x the views thanks to all of the China-haters on CZcams
When he goes "My wife is worth a hundred concubines!" and actually means it
"But my concubines are worth more than a hundred wives" other em
@@aldrinmilespartosa1578 "but my wives are worth more than a thousand concubines" other other em.
@@aldrinmilespartosa1578heck yeah
100 concubines > 1 loyal wife. lifes too short to not be f*cking bishes
“One good girl is worth a thousand bitches.”
Only men like this are worthy of love and a beautiful family!
so, if you were a wealthy man in ancient China, and a dozen beautiful women lined up outside your door and said - please let us in, we would be happy to share you, and give you beautiful children. Also, your wife is on board, as this is very normal. Just please feed us and give us a place to sleep so we don't starve and freeze in the mud.
The ethical decision is to tell these women, or are QUITE willing to take the job, to go die, you've already got a wife? Is that really your answer?
@@brianjohnson4022Lol, what are you saying??..you don't even know the history. In those times, the people of the palace would choose beautiful women in their kingdom to work as a concubine for the king. If you are chosen you have no right to say no. Your life has been decided and you will have to work as a concubine till death. You will have to sleep with the king even if you don't want to. And yes, no man like this deserves true love or a beautiful family.
@@daizz5500 you understand that most of the people lived in squalor, were born on a dirt floor, lived on the edge of death, and died on a dirt floor? Is that not correct?
Being 'forced' to sleep with a single dude while you and all of your children are kept in the greatest comfort the technology of the time allowed.. sounds just awful.
Such a raw deal, while your ugly cousin gets to be 'free' in a mud hut with her children a bad day away from death.
Are you for real?
@@brianjohnson4022 concubines were forced into that position, they were basically sex slaves that would have been executed. I think any person with a good moral compass wouldn't say "Okay!" especially not someone with a loving wife and someone that had the upbringing he had (apparently his mother was a concubine)
Not only was he an emperor, he was a King
+he is believed to be the inventor of the earliest tooth brushes
When you stay faithful with one partner, you have to care about things like hygiene...can't just go get a new wife when she complains you smell 😂
this comment made my day hahahaha u made a great point 😂😂
Chad emperor move
The guy was _clean_
tooth brushes actually originated from neem bushes in India
I read he made that choice because he saw what his mother had to deal with and didn’t want that for his wife or future children
❤
❤
He saw what toxic masculinity does, and said no.
@@FerretKibble Depends I can understand the need for a concubine/mistress as a ruler as you need a heir and sometime the wife can't provide one, and not having a heir can lead to wars of succession which happened quite a few times in China's history BTW.
But the problem is those harems tended to be far to big and led to the exact same problem, main wife doesn't have a son but multiple concubines did leading to a fight for the throne.
@@FerretKibbleCringe 🤡
He valued his mental peace.
My goodness, this woman is beautiful.
Man focused on two things, his family and his job.
- "So, how many sex slaves would you like sir? Last emperor had 10"
- "Oh nono thanks, i love my wife"
- "But sir, nobody has ever in china history declined at least one concubine, what if your wife gets angry , u need backup"
- "I love my wife"
A real man
Actually he didn't do much of anything while he ruled. It's also said that he was stricken with a small... Ship. One of the main reasons he didn't have many children. So yea, I guess he was ok....
Like Hades
This guy became my favorite Chinese emperor in an instant.
Same
you dont even know the others? 😂
@@sjacqVO21 Haha right, The only one I remember is first emperor qin shi huang 🤣
@@sjacqVO21 you don't need to know others
Knowing damn well how terrible man are with concubines lol😂
He found The One and treated her as such. Imagine being her though, like damn boo loyal af
I just love her voice.
Everyone: "harem"
HongZi: "sounds like a ton of problem. No."
He was like "I don't need that stress"👏
He wanted to sleep peacefully every night 😅
50 wives = 50 mothers-in-law.
Fr. Sounds like hell. Never ending problems and headaches. I can already picture them pulling each others hair out and constantly scheming against each other and the emperor and breaking into ever changing groups who hate each other but also “love each other” but always split up into sides over a never ending litany of little issues and miniscule gestures or remarks and constantly dragging the emperor in to get involved in pointless drama or to subtly gossip about meaningless nonsense to and act coy about their intentions any time each one of them is ever alone with him.
And that’s literally just one small part-I’m hardly scratching the surface here on all of the terrible bullshit I can imagine just off the top of my head about dealing with this in real life. Just wait until kids and family get involved. Imagine what would inevitably happen when they start comparing each other’s gifts. Imagine what they would try to do to the girl you genuinely fall in love with. And just wait until the emperor has to deal with a serious crisis and looks to be in a position of weakness. Wait until they inevitably start getting involved with other men and giving a back door to potential rivals. I could go on forever, what an awful experience to be involved in. You would have to have an iron fist or you’d be destroyed by your own harem lmao.
It would literally probably actually be better for everybody for the emperor to just screw random girls instead of starting relationships with all of them and bringing them into his home. It’s the type of thing immature horny young guys dream about but would massively regret because it sounded so much better in their head than it would actually be in real life. Actually managing to get with some girls for yourself would immediately teach you how terrible and exhausting a harem of them would be-ESPECIALLY as a rich, important (and political!) figure!
You would legitimately be at risk of yourself and your kids and loved ones being figuratively and literally stabbed in the back 24/7
@@davidnash8208 No wonder why some of them died young.
The thing is that the presence of concubines often had a political motivation behind them: noble families who wanted to get a foot in the court and influence the emperor through the daughters they inserted in the harem. Needless to say, many powerful families would feel frustrated/insulted by the emperor if he ignored his concubines; and the emperor's wife could very well expect to be the subject of political intrigues and assassination attempts. This loyalty required a lot of bravery from both spouses.
That's their own fault for being awful parents and to lazy to learn how to bribe with something other than people.
To be fair, the Empress, and also other concubines were always, constantly at risk of assassination and sabotage from within the harem and the powers that stand to gain from the harem in-fighting.
Like 90% of palace dramas include at least one plot from a favoured concubine against an Empress, or a less favoured concubine against a more favoured one. Especially if they're A) trying to be the first to bear a son or B) trying to promote their own son to crown prince over others
So brave or not, being "honoured with the privilege" of a marriage to the Emperor, your life was never, truly out of danger. No matter what, having a son, not having a son, getting pregnant, not getting pregnant, everything is grounds for an attack.
Failing to gain the Emperor's attention, bear a healthy heir, and raise them into the next Emperor is failing at your position and puts you in danger of of getting killed and replaced. But doing all those things also puts an additional target on your, and your childrens backs. And some Emperors have even been turned against their own mothers and had them killed too.
Most princes competed for the privilege if being Emperor, and were raised into the role, but the women given to them to marry had no choice but to be brave and die anyway.
@@pvp6077 Hold on friend. There is no circumstantial evidence supporting that concubine’s lives were in any imminent harm from someone other than the emperor himself. Many dramas help to fuel this rhetoric, because most people assume that the history in historical drama means nonfiction, instead of fantasy inspired by history. Propaganda surrounding some of China’s most powerful female leaders, like Wu Zetian, & Empress Dowager Cixi also fuels this myth. But contrary to what is believed, historical recordings show that concubines lives were mostly boring.
Plots & schemes weren’t practical for the average concubine.
A. Because of numbers, there were too many women in the haram during the early to mid harem eras. Thousands of women and multiple scheming. No possible way that the system would’ve lasted for 2,000 years if assassination attempts were happening commonly between the royal women of china. To add, majority of the concubines only ever saw the emperor once, during the wife selection; And being that a child is paramount for the purpose of politically climbing the ladder. The entire ordeal would be quite redundant.
B. The level of extensive monitoring each concubine had. The higher your rank the more staff you accumulated. So they were tight knit.
C. Education. Women of china weren’t educated in politics. So most women, with an exception of a few, wouldn’t have had the bandwidth to understand how to scheme politically. Wu Zetian was an exception being that she was favored, and often tasked with court duties. Cixi’s situation was probably similar to Wu’s but with an exception that she never knew how to fully read or write properly.
D. law. It was illegal for the harem to partake in jealousy, anger, hate, violence, fighting or punishing. To add scheming & killing, federal crimes, in a government where the actions of one affected the many. Her crimes would affect her entire family. Which killing of a royal, I believe was grounds for Nine Familial Extermination. The genocide of Nine generations of your family.
E. The emperor gets the last and final say. Some of china’s most powerful women were able to acquire their power via their connection and proximity to the emperor. As of the case of other women in history. Doesn’t matter how cunning and sly you’re. Doesn’t matter if you have a son. If the emperor dies without setting your son as heir, or you as regent. Then it was all for naught.
Most harm that came to concubines came from the government trying to prevent power grasps EX: killing of concubines after the emperor death. dowager concubines without children forced to become nuns after the emperor’s death.
@@keve5534 this comment demonstrates some hilarious ignorance for vastly different cultural attitudes at the time. Too lazy?
For these families, it was considered an honour to have their daughter high up in court. Just think of how many nobles were sent off as gifts to marry other people in Europe.
@@Freethesnowglobes. Nah. Like I say at the end of my comment: it was actually brave of him.
Exactly rare one, loyal and loving men are rare ...
No side chick means no drama. He was wise to keep one and one only
"Just wait, this monogamy stuff is gonna be lit."
-Hongzhi
He was too a head of his time 😔
How wrong he was...
Women don't want that. They would rather be concubines to the top men.
"not all men" you're right emperor hongzhi of the ming dynasty would never 💅
So stupid
I love this line
Using that from now on
This right here, facts 💯
Lol this is perfect
And he had the least amount of headaches and nagging
"you don't find a man like that every dynasty"
Did a bit of research on him, and seems like he was genuinely a pretty good emperor, and also a good person
@@lordmuhehe4605 people in the past have shorter lifespan than modern time.
@@lordmuhehe4605 most people in that time period died around that age.
Merlin, you know the guy we know as being an old old wizard? Like, the guy that literally built the idea of wizards living a long time, because you'd have to be a wizard to live that long?
Yeah, he died at 41.
@@lordmuhehe4605 True, but to be fair, a lot of bad emperors died pretty young as well. Emperor Yang of Sui is seen as one of the worst tyrants in Chinese history partially because his military expeditions brought the state to bankruptcy, and he only ruled 14 years and died at 49.
@@lordmuhehe4605you’d be lucky if you lived till 20☠️☠️
@@ncrest4365child mortality skewed those numbers a lot. If someone in ancient times made it past the age of 10, he had a very good chance of living to his 60’s.
The other emperors: "you have to have as many wives and concubines as possible. Its good for you."🤡
Emperor Hongzi: "no" 🗿
True giga chad🗿🤌
He had morals
And he literally ended up being way more successful than all the other emperors who were getting assassinated etc. he made his country wealthy and happy. Dude was a perfect emperor who did right by his people instead of being a selfish prick looking for instant gratification at all time like all the other emperors.
And he proved he was right, perhaps being dedicated to only one woman leaves actual time to be a good Emperor and perhaps also leaves time to make sure the successor is competent.
@TDdelta777 It also ment less conflict as there would be less people fighting over the throne.
Out of all the emperors, he was the only king 👑
He is the only one that was not a weak man
He seems like he was a good husband and good father. Giving his son the love he lacked as a child and committing to his wife despite the societal pressure to have concubines at the time. All of this while also having majority of the empire at peace as well! Good on him!
He discovered the ancient secret we all know today. Happy wife, happy life
@@Zerpderp0ah yes that’s all you need. Do everything your wife wants and magically everything will be perfect. What a dumb thing to take away from this story
@@whitezombie10 the evidence speaks for itself I'm just saying
@@Zerpderp0 don't worry everyone didn't take you literally and recognizes the widely known saying of "happy wife happy life". For one it's mostly a joke and two it obviously isn't saying be an indentured servant to your tyrant of a wife but every married man knows if your wife is happy your life is probably easier lol
@@ethanhart5237 some people seem allergic to the idea that one should make their partner happy to the best of their abilities. Regardless of gender a relationship only works when both parties are happy to see their partner happy. Being jealous of their happiness is selfish and a relationship killer. A relationship should prop each other up
The most chillest guy, man.
Emperor Hongzi: I got 99 problems but -- 😆
Look at his face, he looks so honest and trustworthy 🥺
LOL, BS.
Thats a painting 😭
@@aguspare1992 womp womp lol
@@Paracelsus. doesn't matter lol
Remember faces are not in the inside
Bro Said: "Nah, I'mma be Loyal 🗿"
Respect++ for Emperor Hongzhi.
"Could never be me."
"I don't play that."
"I ain't with it."
"Miss me with that bs."
"We out here being loyal and sh...'
I had to listen to this twice to hear what you said🥺 you're so pretty
How ppl in general behave in relationships tell you a lot about how they behave in life. In business, in how they treat their family, animals, strangers, etc. Double for when you are the traditionally more powerful gender or the gender that gets more say over political or financial matters. Society has traditionally always claimed for whatever reason selected, that men need more than one woman. A man with complete power who selects to be with only one woman forever.....is a man I would have followed anywhere as a subject. THAT is a disciplined man with a sensitive conscience and a deep mind.
I'd always wondered if there was one who actually managed to stay true to his wife. I'm glad there's at least one Emperor of China who can be held up as a good husband.
@@aag2139the harem system where the women are locked in the palace for the rest of their lives and would be put to death if caught with another man should not be compared to polyamory
@@Roko-jb5hlmore like restrictions on basic freedoms. Amorphous blobs where people are free to pursue what makes them happy is better than strict rules that force them into unhappy lifestyles
@@Roko-jb5hl You are a very strange person man. Comments like yours make it easy to see how human beings will cape for evil under the guise of rationality. Creepy.
@@Roko-jb5hlYou think being forced to be trapped with a man inside of a castle with the punishment of death if you don’t abide by his rules, is better than having the freedom to make your own decisions about your sexual partners?
@@Roko-jb5hl What is “productive” about having sex slaves?
He looks so kind to omg. Why do other drawings of men from that time look like villian with super sharp eyes and evil grins but this is the first painting I've seen with a guy with a warm smile 😭😫
Totally! Not only does he look younger here than most other Emperors in their portraits, he's also decently good-looking by modern standards. Honestly, you'd expect _this_ to be the image of an actor playing the role, while the real-life guy is anything but handsome, lol!
You should see his son’s painting. He looks like a villain!
@@oxAkatsubakixo so his son was a jerk? That's kind of sad
@@mirophew7164 Yeah. Typical spoiled brat who neglected responsibilities. He didn’t rule and had lavish lifestyle. He had more harem than he could feed, resulting those women starving to death in the confinement of palace. And he died meaninglessly at a young age. He got drunk, fell to the river, got sick, then died.
@@mirophew7164 it's pretty natural. Good times breed bad people. IMO it's because good people don't often make good parents, much less in nobility, bc giving your kids all you didn't have ends up spoiling them and while love does not spoil people, money certainly does. You think you have a good kid bc they should've seen you be a good person but they didn't process that and instead listened to anyone but their "soft" parents. With royals and the sort it's especially bad bc there's always people conspiring who think there should always be a war against something if not the entire rest of the world.
One of the reasons why harems WERE a thing was due to children..... it was in case of the other children dying off and to also have a loyal right-hand man to the current crown prince..... although in Chinas case it kinda failed due to there being MANY child emperors which was..... BAD oh yea and it was also to solidify alliances
In India it's lord RAM from the famous ramayana
Reminds me of the Epic the Musical line
“also, he never cheated on his wife!”
“Free him.”
I see you are a person of culture
✨Release him✨
Well, having multiple wife is not cheating
@@Abu_Tuesday well, having multiple glorified sex slaves is fvcked up.
@@Abu_Tuesdayconcubines were sex slaves, not wives
Fun Fact: his advisors complaint his monogamous life bcs fearing he might not produce promising candidates of heirs, but once he has a son his advisors stopped complaining
I wish people talked about me like that after I'm dead. That's legacy.
I think he dropped this: 👑
He never dropped his honour, bro died naturally as a king with his crown
I don't think he ever dropped it, literally. Untill the day he died. Man was an emperor after all.
I just read up on him genuinely his reign was apparently a really chill time to live Plus from what I'm reading he was not only loyal to his wife but quite affectionate
And his bloodline ended on his son as he only got one... "big surprise" and explanation why others didn't follow his footsteps...
Good on him. If only most rulers were that way
All these men. These hundreds of men. And we can only respect one.
Hongzi: I love my wife
The rest of China, probably: S I M P
Nah he just loyal
Would a woman be regarded a “simp” for loving only her husband?
@@ekaeteuwem369 males are known for having dou ke standards, it's the usual with their selfish gender
@@ekaeteuwem369 at that time, no. but he would.
I don't understand the diss tbh. Man was loyal (one wife all life), levelheaded (didn't get involved in palace intrigues or dirty politics), ingenious (invented toothbrush), and peaceful (no bloody conquests or wars). Most importantly, he's an emperor ruling an entire ancient nation with his equally standing empress wife (who must've taken the symbolically hugest steel balls to maintain her side of things with an untouched harem full of imprisoned noblewomen who had nowhere else to go but still put in by their families for political reasons). They both helmed the whole empire with just ruling. You got to be stupid to say such a regal and respectful husband a mere simp. He's not a salivating foolish dog doing her biddings.
300 emperors but only 1 king 🙏🙏
A king is less than an Emperor, so that doesn't work.
@@nestephThis is not how it works, United Kingdom never had an emperor and at some point it were the greatest empire on earth, thus their king were more proeminent than any other emperor. King or emperor is just a matter of political adjustment.
@@nikolaszoni7257 the Hanovers chose not to go by Imperial titles, they had cousins who had imperial titles it could have been seen as a challenge. This is also an outlier, His Imperial Magesty has always been higher than His Royal Magesty
@@nikolaszoni7257 that's not how this works. Just because they decided to not be formally titled as emperors doesn't mean they weren't technically emperors.
Emperor's are Superior to Kings.
Ok, but he died at 34, every source says he bowed to the whims and crazy luxuries of his wife and unworthy in-laws, and his son took the empire in a completely different direction than Confucian teachings. He got a temple and a holiday, but everyone's learning about this dude from a web hottie. On the other hand, 1 in every 200 people are related to Genghis Khan. Genghis's name is immortal because he clapped everything in sight, sexually and militarily, and he lived to be 65 in a time when a cut could kill you.
He LIED! LMAOOOOO
He's the only Emperor worth being talked and taught about
Eh, not really. In terms of praising ethics, hes definitely the one. But you cant just ignore the great or horrible deeds otger emperors have done
If you understand Chinese history deep enough, Song Ren Zhong from Song dynasty are worth being taught as well
He's decision to stay monogamous was actually pretty smart. Most of those concubines would have been the daughters of important noblemen, so you can imagine what a poisonous situation this created within the harem. This way sleeping with a woman became more of a political choice then anything else and many of these emperors were probably manipulated without even realising it. So he spared himself from a lot of BS by staying monogamous...
that woman gotta be the luckiest woman in Chinese history😅
Bro caught feelings fr
While there have been many good and even great emperors in China, some of whom even brought about golden ages, Hongzi was the best husband out of them all and an all around good dude. He was chill, loved his wife and son and maintained an age of stability for his people. A good emperor, a good husband, a good father and a good guy
man just cause he was monogamous doesnt mean his age was stable, it was riddled with natural disasters and famines on gigantic proportions
Was this the same emperor who also took one wife because he saw and acknowledge the chaos by taking so many?
Yes his mom was killed by a concubine
Actually smart lmao
@@taylardotson8100 it all makes sense now
@@taylardotson8100protecting his wife too… a lovely man.
I respect that MFer.
Need someone like this fr
Your fashion sense is always excellent but I love the hairstyle in this!! The buns look like cat/fox ears, I love that. Pretty and fun.
Or a literal hair bow
gives Princess Irulan vibes
Keqing from Genshin has the same hairstyle
@@HazeEmry I was quickly reading the comments so I first read your comment as
"King Gengish had the same style "
And imagined Gengihis Khan with it 😂😂😂
If i remember correctly, dude LOVED his wife a lot! He wanted no other woman but her
And that is what makes that man a chad
Ming Empire was the best dynasty of China, no matter what CCP revisionists want to say, it was the first government to implement a free market, allowing peasants to use resources around them to create and produce to make their communities better
What an interesting correlation, a man who exhibits enough strength & integrity to honour his wife also happens to make an excellent & successful leader 🤔
I've always found a kind of ironic that some of these emperors would have less children make it to adulthood than people who only had one wife
Yeah, because all those children from different women would try to kill each other. And those who were actual siblings were usually more chill
@@blank_linebecause they grew up with their siblings and loved them. Not in separate palaces.
@@dana8503 yes, that's right
That's what I had in mind
Pretty sure he only had one surviving son, so not really much of an improvement
Also, a man with one wife and one or two kids would be more likely to take good care of his family. Mortality was already high, but one core family with a good father had better chances of raising quality children to responsible adulthood
Emperor Hongzhi was a real man.
This was especially impressive cos the harem of an emperor literally represents politics. The status of nobles can be represented if not influenced by their daughters being married to the emperor, so officials did pressure emperors to create a harem or just straight up shove ladies into the harem to "appease the emperor".
Men shouting from the top of their lungs screaming “all women over exaggerate when they say they’ve been treated wrongly for so many years. It was never really that bad for them. They’ve always been treated fairly.”…… Men, why?!
Yeah...theres literally never a time in history where women had the same freedom, equality and judgement free life even as CLOSE as men
Because we men ignore evidence when it's against us.
Why would you accept such evidence? It only makes your case weaker.
So be like a law enforcement agency and only selectively pick evidence that fits your narrative, discard the rest because fuck em!
-Men
@@adrenalineactivatepretty much yeah. Best example I can think of is Jean d'Arc, and even then she got fucked over.
@@adrenalineactivateyou really think were all kings princess
@@thewildcardpersonare you dumb?
IIRC they were an absolute power couple too
Like I do believe his wife was a pretty bad*** consort....
He just had a worthy wife.
bro musta really fell for a girl he felt was worth his whole heart and was not betrayed hurt or fumbled
The only major setback in his life was probably spoiling his son too much. He was a good emperor but his son, in contrast, was a terrible one. Probably due to lack of competition for the throne. The Ming Dynasty's decline was hastened during his son's reign.
If I’m not mistaken u posted this on instagram…AND the amount of people defending this tradition was actually insane and scary… glad CZcams people are more sane 😅
Instagram is such a sh!thole 😂 honestly whenever I read CZcams comments I find myself enjoying the conversations, as opposed to reading Instagram comments which usually makes me feel sad and depressed. It's like a slap that wakes you up to the reality of this world. No thanks! I'll enjoy my blissful ignorance here on CZcams.
What’s wrong with it? I’m curious on other’s perspective
@@MrFish609 if you know anything about it, then you’d know its not at all a matter perspective, rather than just plain morally disgusting and horrible to force women or anyone for that matter to be a sex slave and only needed for someone’s pleasure.
@@EmanDeMoan lol honestly you have to take that crap in VERY small doses, if at all. I agree CZcams is way more wholesome 😅
@@Jawminn83 now that is an interesting perspective bcus it is one sided, okay in the time of the emperor what other job/title that would have more benefits than concubines in term of safety and security if you wnna bring in ‘Morality’ , don’t you think it would kinda useless bcus morality changes over time
Trust has nothing to do with it. Integrity is everything.
he also looked handsome
I'm amazed how through China's entire imperial history...ONLY ONE emperor was decent to be fair and treat his wife as a wife and not as "another woman in the harem(regardless of her status in the harem)".
This is why nobility and wisdom as such coveted traits. Because they’re extremely rare.
Why? Men are men everywhere and most of them are horrible. That's why history and present looks the way it does
That's just male nature lol, monogamy is just a social technology to keep your society relatively stable (and even then you mean be pretty stable with polygamy).
@@Warsie the typical excuses from narcs with bo self discipline
@@Isthisjoebiden ahh yes, all those people outside of modern societies which would encourage that narcissism engaged in polygamy because of narcissism lol.
Also you kinda need discipline to run a harem
Other fun facts about being a concubine include; not being able to refuse the Emperor when he called for you, being forced to be washed and groomed to HIS standards and liking, your children being his property to trade with (or if its a boy you'll have to protect them from the other concubines with boys), sometimes you weren't killed but you were like never allowed to go be with someone else after the emperor died instead they shaved your head and sent you to be a buddhist nun (commonly under guard), the number of concubines sometimes meant that you lived in a sort of dorm room instead of having your own private space and servants waiting on you hand and foot kinda deal, etc etc etc
Edit to address the comment below
Just because you are now food secure and have medical care and nice clothes does not make up for being forcible removed from your home for the rest of your existence. You will NEVER see your family again (if they're normal, because as you said everyone was flat broke and starving so ain't nobody going to visit their daughters in the palace) and you will never see your friends again. You might make new friends but your life now belongs to the emperor, forever, no matter if you want it or not.
Obviously there would be people happy to take this chance, ditch their families and towns and live out their days in the palace. But there were obviously also people not happy about being taken away for selections. Don't pretend that food security makes up for completely losing your identity.
Second Edit:
Honestly the sexism is wild here. The gender division is so clear. The men say "they should be thankful for their luxurious lifestyles and stop trying to be so promiscuous" and the women saying "wow what a horrible life. What an icky gilded cage. Id rather marry locally..."
So just in general let's be aware that this is a gender issue. If you're a man maybe shut up since you weren't the one being sold and listen to the women who say 'wow how horrific that must have been'. Being sold to a husband was never a threat to you so why would you look down on it? To us it is still an active threat. So shut it.
Shout it from the rooftops a gilded cage is still a cage! White rice doesn't make up for being raped by a stranger! Nice clothes don't make up for losing your whole existence and identity! The warmth of friends family and loved ones can't be replaced by exotic fruits!
Omg P.S. court etiquette required you to remain absolutely still and silent while the emperor was raping you. No crying and certainly no enjoying it. It was not a fun experience like you might see in the dramas. Usually it would have been the girls first time too so it would have hurt quite badly and still...totally silent and perfectly still so the emperor could use you like a little sex toy/incubator.
Maybe for you the idea of being raped and sold isn't so scary if you don't have to work hard labor anymore. But as a person who has been forced and has moved far away from their family I can say it sounds truly horrific. The isolation and fear never stop.
So sad
That's just horrifying.
And better standard of living and luxuries than 99% of the men and women from the era ever will have and free medical treatment and care by the best doctors of the era and servants for service. You people are way to hung on the struggles of the top 0.1% of histories people and women when they had a better life than any other commoner ever will. Talk about the actual struggles in the era more and the struggles of the actual commoner woman.
As she said in a comment, glorified sex slaves
@@childcannibalism5080 These people gloss over the fact majority of people were starving and with a high risk of death outside the palace.
Singapore the first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew had only 1 wife ...married 1950 until she passed away at 2010..
He became emperor at 17 and died at 35 years old.
If only more Emperors were like this one. No war in his reign, was a loyal husband and brave partner, and reportedly a pretty decent father. (Compared to his predecessors and successors)
It was pretty peaceful during his reign. China is a large mass of land and all it takes is one power hungry dragon to be born for a age of war to start. 😅
Dude got lucky af.
Any pictures of the woman who inspired such devotion? She must have been a badass.
it was the Emperor's decision based on his childhood experience.
It was his decision
And that emperor made the worst mistake of his life.
"Out of a thousand men i find 1 righteous but among women i find none"
Bro really said he didn’t need anyone else
Respect
If he aint like Emperor Hongzhi, then I dont want him 😒
Same in India. Only Kind Rama made the decision to have only one wife for life. Most Indians follow him till this day and only have one wife.
If you look at how alot of the women today flock towards the famous and rich, it seems that women are totally fine with non-monogamous partners as long as they can have their materialistic needs met.
You didn't mention why. His mother was a concubine, and one of his father's wives or concubine tried to assassinate him and his mother in an attempt to secure a better place for herself and her son.
Yea I heard about that too
I assume that story involves Consort Wan being the perpetrator of the schemes against Hongzhi. That story is probably false then since it also states that Consort Wan killed all of Emperor Chenghua's sons besides Hongzhi which didn't happen considering a majority of those sons (including the father of Emperor Jiajing) survived to adulthood.
@@SolitaryBee-wd5wf Chinese history is not the most consistent, considering that multiple Dynasties had the bad habit of destroying the written records of the previous ones. Hell the Communist probably did this the most, so their history was sometimes reduced to oral history/ legends, and then someone would write them down later.
From what is known, that the Emperor was Monogamous, it is reasonable to believe that one of his mother's..... Sister wives for lack of a better label, was involved in an assassination conspiracy, either alone, or with other sister wives, to kill the Future Emperor, and probably managed to kill some of his older brothers.