Imperial Chinese harem system

The ranks of imperial consorts have varied over the course of Chinese history but remained important throughout owing to its prominence in the management of the inner court and in imperial succession, which ranked heirs according to the prominence of their mothers in addition to their birth order. Regardless of the age, however, it is common in English translation to simplify this hierarchy into the three ranks of empress, consorts, and concubines.^[1] It is also common to use the term "harem", an Arabic loan word used in recent times to refer to imperial women's forbidden quarters in many countries. In later Chinese dynasties, these quarters were known as the inner palace (內宮; nèigōng) or the rear palace (後宮; hòugōng).^[2] In Chinese, the system is called the "rear palace system" (後宮制度; hòugōng zhìdù).^[3]

No matter the dynasty, the empress (皇后; huánghòu) held the highest rank and was the legal wife of the emperor, as well as the chief of the imperial harem and "mother of the nation" (母后天下; mǔhòu tiānxià) which translates to ”imperial mother of all under heaven”. She was also known as the "central palace" (中宮; zhōnggōng). In addition, the emperor would typically have other imperial women (嬪妃; pínfēi). Every dynasty had its set of rules regarding the numerical composition of the harem.