Mandarin Course

恪順皇貴妃圖卷‧光緒皇夜祭珍妃(前段) Her Majesty Zhenfei

In Memory of 恪順皇貴妃Please note: In English, the term “concubine” means “(in polygamous societies) a woman who lives with a man but has lower status than his wife or wives.” (Oxford Dictionary of English, 2nd ed. revised, 2005). To translate the Chinese term 妃as “concubine” is therefore incorrect and a degrading practice, even if we add “imperial” to make it “imperial concubine”. A more correct English term for 妃is “consort” which means “… the spouse of a reigning monarch”. Concubine in Chinese means 妾侍, and just that. Photos taken on location in the Forbidden City, Beijing, 19 and 23 June 2010, Saturday and Wednesday Music from WCD-1005, Wing Cheung Records Company, Hong Kong, 1990 珍貴妃looks charming, even by today’s standard. 光緒皇夜祭珍妃首演: 1950年5月14日(參考『香港粤劇劇目概說, 1900-2002』 / 陳守仁(香港: 香港中文大學音樂系粤劇研究計劃, 2007)) 頁45 Book source: 于善浦珍妃北京紫禁城出版社1989 From the book: 「珍妃實不過是光緒帝的一名普通妃子而已。」(後記). Nevertheless, in September 1898 her two brothers were among the arrested of the reform group . And, as a “pillow-side person” of the emperor, she probably was sympathetic with the reforms of her husband, if not an active participant. No matter what we say, Zhenfei (1876-1900) reminds us of a sad phase of Chinese history. The reform movement of Emperor Guangxu lasted only three months in 1898. Before 1900, Zhenfei had already been in custody in the Forbidden City for some two years or so. Armies of the …