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Background/ TLDR

Having at long last gained access to this source by a certain Mr. Woo and with the support of the answers to my previous question I can finally gather some statistics on successions in the different dynasties. But there are still some things left unclear.

The rule of succession expounded on page 629 (in my opinion he actually states two different rules, so the second, that he seems to focus on), says (to my understanding) the following:

  • If there are 嫡子 (sons of the Empress) pick the eldest
  • Else pick the eldest from among the sons of the 36 consorts (Woo uses “wives”) residing in the palaces gong（宫）。
  • Failing even that, pick a son of the remaining 72 consorts (Woo: “concubines”) from the subpalaces yuan (院）

Note that Woo believes this rule to have remained in function between the end of Zhou and the beginning of Qing with a small change (number of empresses) in the Yuan and Ming dynasties.

Difficulty

Even if the record of consorts’ promotions and demotions in the dynastic histories is not gapless, the information therein concerns promotions to particular ranks. Never have I seen consorts assigned to 宮 or 院。As a result, I must find the correspondence between ranks in the body of consorts and 宮 or 院。

I first hoped it might be enough to identify the 36 most high ranking court ladies below the empress. This can be done for example here. But the results are very doubtful.

Instead of 36+72 =108 ladies below rank of empress, the early Tang have 40 + 81 = 121 ladies (I have now confirmed this arrangement from 新唐書 here ) .If I take the first 36, the cut would fall within 5th rank. Later Tang has but 82 in total. On the Ming the information on the site is incomplete.

Another piece ostensibly from the Zhou Rites (周禮) (but actually, I think from a commentary thereof) that mentions 宮, but not 院 is cited here. It appears though, that ALL 121 consort are classified into 宮, the higher their rank, the fewer per 宮：

六宫即前一宫，后五宫。后五宫指后一宫；三夫人一宫；九嫔一宫；二十七世妇一宫；八十一御妻一宫。后正位宫闱，体同天王；夫人坐论妇礼；九嫔掌教四德；世妇主知丧祭宾客；女御序王燕寝。

Question

Can anyone provide clear information about which ranks of consort resided in the 宮 and 院 respectively?

In case Woo‘s Information is contradicted, additional pointers as to the role of these in succession would be appreciated, but can also be posted under the more specialised question.

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Ludi
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    后五宫指后一宫 For anyone hoping to use translator apps before the quote is translated by a person, don't; the quote is written in Simplified Chinese, which is going to confuse the hell out of an automatic translator, especially when talking about queens and palaces. – dROOOze Apr 11 '20 at 01:45
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    I'm afraid there's been some misunderstanding. These are not actual rules, or exact numbers, or real places. Rather, they are abstractions meant to illustrate the size of the imperial harem. Take the Forbidden Palace: while the inner palace does indeed have "3 gong" in the center, it is actually flanked by the "east 6 gong" and the "west 6 gong". Which is also where Qing Empresses reside. In reality, the "6 yuan" is a mutation of the old "6 gong" adage referred to e.g. in the commentary you cited. It was changed to a near synonym to avoid repeating the "gong" character. – Semaphore Apr 11 '20 at 07:24
  • @Semaphore thank you. This is extremely important. So, is there any source I can consult to find out whether actually (and at what rank) the different status of consorts, that Woo is talking about existed and where it started? Each site seems to cite a different rule, for example, while Woo wants the age of the children of the consorts to be considered, this article ( https://baike.baidu.com/item/嫡长子继承制/3632829 ) says, the rank of each mother was considered. – Ludi Apr 11 '20 at 07:42
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    @Semaphore - Whoa. That's good info. Good enough that I'm wishing it was in an answer, so I could upvote it properly... – T.E.D. Apr 11 '20 at 15:16
  • @Ludi Are you asking about consort ranks, or succession rules? (1) For the former, the Baidu link you cited in the question gives a good rundown. As you can see it changes constantly - as before, I would suggest focusing on a single dyanasty if you need more details. I can't access the Woo article directly, but based on your summary, no, there has never been such a "two rank" system as you described. (2) For succession, the Confucian doctrine is either "立儲以嫡，無嫡以長" or "立嫡以長，立子以貴". In both, the Proper Wife's son takes priority over other sons. So there's two "ranks" of consorts in that sense. – Semaphore Apr 12 '20 at 10:01
  • @Semaphore thank you! I have a separate question linked in the beginning, asking about the succession rules. That is my original interest. I would start with the Tang and Ming, because I am just reading about them. I asked this question about the consort ranks because Woo claims there was a „two rank“ system. – Ludi Apr 12 '20 at 10:06
  • May I suggest asking that directly as a question. That is a focused, testable hypothesis which can be concretely answered by citing experts or with statistics - perfect for History.SE. – Semaphore Apr 13 '20 at 10:51
  • @Semaphore Which question do you mean? Testing Brook is exactly what I am now doing. I am only hesitant to interpret the data because I cannot settle the question of the precise succession rules. – Ludi Apr 13 '20 at 14:24
  • I meant you should ask: "Did Yuan tanistry practices influence how Ming succession was handled?" directly. Re: I cannot settle the question of the precise succession rule With respect, if the answers you received have not clarified this for you, then you may find it more beneficial to do as I suggested last time, and simply ask: "What is the nature of Ming China's royal succession rules?" – Semaphore Apr 13 '20 at 14:40
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    @Ludi I edited my comment while you were answering, but no, I'm saying there might be some confusion over how Chinese imperial succession works. Legally, there is only one rule: the emperor chooses. But the emperor can be persuaded, influenced, threatened. – Semaphore Apr 13 '20 at 14:49
  • I would like to make an answer but since I was accused previously by the OP that I was a racist (though I don't even know which country the OP is from) and unfairly suspended by the moderators who favor women more than men so I think it is appropriate enough that those who are familiar with Chinese make the answer. –  Apr 13 '20 at 19:51

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