Chairman Mao's Hammer

The hammer of Mao might have fallen a while ago but his presence is still felt strongly throughout the whole country of China. Today's field trip took us to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

Mao wanted Tiananmen Square to hold a billion people, and it is pretty close to it if not surpassing it. It is the biggest square in the world and is pretty impressive to see. Mao himself is interred there and is on display but we did not take the venture to see him. I do not particularly like dead bodies, so this was a good call in my mind.

The Forbidden City is just to the north of Tiananmen Square and it was the home of the emperor of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was fairly similar to all of our other historical sites. But something that has interested me in all of the sights is the people in lower places of power such as the eunuchs and concubines.

At every site our guide, Henry (who is wonderful I might add), tells us about the concubines and eunuchs in some capacity and it always peaks my interest. The eunuchs were usually castrated at a very young age and were only used for servitude. They were used as servants because it was thought since they could not have children they would not be tempted or able to start their own dynasties. The last imperial eunuch died in 1996 I found out which blows my mind. The dynasties of China seem like they happened hundreds of years ago but in reality the last emperor died in 1967 but was of course out of power much earlier than that.

As for the concubines, some emperors had thousands of them but they were usually chosen every three years. In a lot of movies they portray the girls as wanting to be chosen but in reality it was not a very pleasant life. You would basically be one step above the slaves and would only spend time with your husband, the emperor, for two hours every few months. There are cases of a concubine becoming the empress and becoming very powerful but it was rare. The process would take a very long time as well because every girl over the age of 13 was eligible to be chosen and had to go for inspection.

Really it would be a sad life to be either a eunuch or concubine but for some it was desirable because they would at least be in the imperial court which was something they would otherwise never achieve. Just goes to show you how much someone is willing to sacrifice for a title . . . I would say this transcends cultural lines and well as time lines.

Tomorrow is another free day so I have no idea what mischief I will get into, hopefully not more scorpions but we shall see! And then Monday is the Great Wall day, lot of exercise!!

Until next time gentle readers . . . .