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The eunuchs and the women are the only companions o f
the Emperor in his leifure hours: o f the latter, one only has
the rank o f Emprefs, after whom are two Queens and their
numerous attendants, which conftitute the fecOnd clafs o f the
eftablilhment; and the third confifts o f fix Queens, and their attendants.
T o thefe three ranks o f his wives are attached one
hundred ladies, who are ufually called his concubines, though
they are as much a legal part o f his eftablilhment as the others.
T h e y would feem to be o f the fame defcription, and to hold the
fame rank as the handmaids o f the ancient Ifraelites. Their
children are all confid.ered as branches o f the Imperial family,
but the preference to the fucceffion is generally given to the
male iffue o f the firft Emprefs, provided there fhould be any.
This however is entirely a matter o f choice, the Emperor having
an uncontrouled power o f nominating his fucceflor, either
in his own family or out o f it. The daughters are ufually married
to Tartar princes, and other Tartars o f diftindtion, but
rarely, i f ever, to a Chinefe.
On the acceffion o f a new Emperor, men o f the firft rank
and fituation in the empire confider themfelves as highly honoured
and extremely fortunate, i f the graces o f their daughters
ihould prove fufficient to provide them a place in the lift
o f his concubines; in which cafe, like the nuns in fome countries
o f Europe, they are doomed for ever to refide within the
walls o f the palace. Such a fate, however, being common in
China in a certain degree to all women-kind, is lefs to be deplored
than the fimilar lot o f thofe in Europe, where one fex
is fuppofed to be entitled to an equal degree o f liberty with
the
the other; and as the cuftom o f China authorizes the fale o f all
young women by their parents or relations to men they never
faw, and without their confent previoufly obtained, there can
be no hardlhip in configning them over to the arms o f the prince;
nor is any difgrace attached to the condition o f a concubine,
where every marriage is a legal proftitution. A t the death o f the
fovereign all his women are removed to a feparate building,
called by a term which, divefted o f its metaphor, implies the
Palace o f Chajlity, where they are doomed to refide during the
remainder o f their lives.