The Power of the Phoenix Crown: Imperial Women and Material Culture in Late Ming China

• Author / Creator

  Song, Yuxian

• My thesis holds that Ming imperial women used political opportunity and agency to formulate a strategy of building relationships with male officials and inner court residents. Other than feminine virtues, the extent to which they succeeded in the strategy decided their reputations in the historical records.
  
  My project presents Empress Dowager Li (1545-1614) and Imperial Concubine Zheng (1565-1630) as representative cases of Ming imperial women. Through a scrutiny of both official and private records, I present their life cycles and examine their political opportunity, agency, social relationships and social activities. In addition, I present evidence of material culture and daily life in the Ming court, a perspective not seen in the official records. Material evidence illuminates a fuller picture of imperial woman’s life. Through their clothes we are able to look at their creativity in court fashion. The material evidence and records of their social activities reveal the everyday life of imperial women and the variety of ways in which social and political communication took place between men and women of the inner court.
  In analyzing the life of Empress Dowager Li and Imperial Concubine Zheng as daughters, wives, and mothers, we observe them as individuals and as women making connections with male officials in the outer court and female residents in the inner court. The course of their lives shows both opportunity and restrictions imposed on Ming imperial women.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Material culture
  • Imperial court
  • Ming
  • Imperial women

• Graduation date

  Fall 2015

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3RJ49337

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.