McMahon . Women Shall Not Rule : Imperial Wives and Concubines in China

So far we do not have much serious scholarship on the study of polygamy in ancient China, except for collections of literary compositions. Keith McMahon's newest book, Women Shall Not Rule: Imperial Wives and Concubines in China from Han to Liao, fills in this blank in the field of Chinese studies. In this book, written with conscientiousness and compassion, Keith McMahon illustrates early Chinese dynastic history from a very unique perspective. Rather than discussing emperors and heroes as in mainstream historiography, Woman Shall Not Rule focuses on imperial ladies – empresses and consorts – in the context of polygamist ancient China with scenes of self-sacrifice, torture and violence, and even mild pornography. The term " polygamy " in this work refers specifically to an institution of royal marriage in early China designed to guarantee a male heir. In addition to presenting an alternative narrative of Chinese history from about 1250 B.C.E. to 1125 C.E., the author also takes imperial polygamy as an approach to the study of sexual politics in China. In the prologue, entitled Sexual Politics and State Politics, McMahon provides a few critical questions when considering imperial polygamy in pre-modern China. For example, how was imperial polygamy established? What were its values and ideals? How did it function in the imperial family and in the ruling elite, etc.? He shifts the readers' attention from the seemingly prevalent practice to its institutional structure and its impact on both male rulers and their women. The author also reexamines the authority of historical narratives. He reminds us that records about imperial families written by either historians or unofficial writers could be biased and based on imagination, particularly in relation to imperial women. overview of imperial polygamy in the first chapter, entitled " The Institution and Values of Royal Polygamy. " He defines the three key principles needed to understand imperial polygamy in early China as " love and favoritism, women and state politics, and the strict division between main wife and concubines " (p. 9). Each of the three sections consists of 25 to 35 accounts of influential empresses, consorts, servant maids and/or eunuchs in this historical period. The book makes these characters as significant as the male rulers. Some of the accounts, such as those of Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun and Empress Wu Zetian,