Essay On Women In Imperial China

Women & Power in Imperial China

Women rulers during Imperial China were extremely rare. The major belief and assumption of women and power was that women and political power were not a very good mix. If and when women did rule, it was a sign of male weakness, and considered to be political ploy in politics. It was very difficult for women because they were rejected from heaven due to the fact that rule by women was not natural. Confucian views on women rulers were not positive, considering that they were strong believers in The Mandate of Heaven. The Mandate of Heaven was a way for the Chinese to basically a way explain the rise and fall of rulers and ruling families. How it was explained was that heaven granted a ruler a mandate to rule. Males usually ruled because they were believed to hold magic and essence, and the ruler was believed to hold the mandate that the gods supposedly gave to him. What made the ruler stand out from everyone else was that women and all other men did not possess this particular power. Truthfully, it was difficult for females to take the throne, but despite how rare it was in Imperial China, it was not impossible.

Nomadic female rulers’ slight difference was not necessarily a bad one, and the reasoning behind the difference was the way the nomadic people lived. Nomadic people follow food, therefore, they were not sedentary. Some believed that nomadic women rulers had been granted entirely too much power in military and political decision. Nomadic women rulers controlled ordos, (entire domains) and owned large portions of property. Despite what many thought, and how rare this was to happen, nomadic women rulers were actually great both in and commanding