Concubinage in Themiclesia

Concubinage in Themiclesia refers to the legal relationship between one male and female(s) other than his lawful spouse. Historical practices were partly inherited from Menghean, though in Themiclesia important development occurred.

In modern Themiclesia, concubinage is no longer legal, formally abolished only in 1962 though largely obsolete since the 1810s. Concubinage was in some periods subject to sumptuary restrictions according to the male's social status. That of the monarchy grew into a sizeable harem and, having access to the monarch and possessing independent wealth, gave some women and their relatives political clout. In commoners, concubinage was heavily restrained by the wealth of the provider, usually the husband.

In contrast to polygynous relationships, Themiclesian law did not formally recognize polyandrous ones.

Definitions

The anthropologist Carl Temite (1940) has called attention to the difficulty of translating the term "marriage" into historical Themiclesian practices and has argued that the institution of marriage as understood in a modern context, which is heterosexual, exclusive, procreative, and love-based, did not truly exist in ancient Themiclesia. Instead, there were multiple forms of relationship cross-gender relationships that are non-exclusive, independent, and co-valid. It is therefore at least a little misleading to use the term "concubine" without qualification, as it connotes inferiority, disrespect, and lasciviousness to the modern mind. Such cross-gender relationships arguably had different functions, laws, and ceremonies associated with them.

Origins

Following Temite's reframing of this field, it is now recognized that there are at least four types of intimate cross-gender relationships in protohistoric Themiclesia in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE:

• styak (奭)
• lum (勝)
• tsei (妻)

Aristocratic concubinage

The concubinage of the monarchy and nobility represents a merger of the two sources of concubines in early Themiclesian history. In imitation of the bureaucracy, the concubines of nobles are also typically arranged into a ranked structure. At an earlier time, this may have represented the dignity of their families, but later females (especially to the monarch) were seen as holding these ranks independently of their families. Such ranks could even be mean favour to them. In the most extreme case, the queen's (or after 543, empress') father, uncles, and brothers were made lords, in imitation of the monarch's own family, so that the two households united in marriage be symbolic equals; lesser magnates also granted favours, such as minor administrative positions, to the households of their concubines. While aristocratic men may be legally bound to multiple females, this is not to say that all females in service to him are his concubines. An aristocrat may have female servants and slaves that are not concubines, and concubines themselves may have servants and slaves. Per custom, a servant to a concubine is almost always female or an eunuch, though exceptions exist. Concubines to aristocrats were justified on grounds of provision of an heir to continue the household ancestral veneration of the husband

Monarchy

The Themiclesian monarch has, per sumtuary hierarchy, the right to the largest concubinage. As early as the Tsjinh (265 – 421), the administrative codices provide that the king has four ranks of marital concubines: the pja-njing (夫人), the rjang-njing (良人), the pret-tsje′ (八子), and the sn′jit-tsje′ (七子). Concubines of the first two ranks were given fiefs and deemed equivalent with male aristocrats, though their nobility was non-heritable. They could, as much as male aristocrats, tax their fiefdoms and enjoy income, though their ability to govern them directly or appoint officials in them was limited. The latter two ranks were deemed equivalent to high-ranking bureaucrats and provided with salaries, rather than fiefdoms. The station of pja-njing was once limited to the secondary wives that were given to the king along with the arrival with the queen, though later lower concubines could be promoted to that rank under royal favour. The ranks of rjang-njing, pret-tsje′, and sn′jit-tsje′, was used for females the monarch acquires from domestic magnates. The following chart illustrates their respective entitlements; while the queen or empress is not a concubine, her entitlements are presented for comparison.

Title	Shinasthana	Income	Male peer	Residence	Bureaucracy
Queen/Empress	后	1 prefecture	King/Emperor	Entire palace	3 principal counsels
Pja-njing	夫人	1 county	Ordinary peer	Entire hall	Household manager (1,000 bushels)
Rjang-njing	良人	100 – 300 households	Titular peer	Part of a hall	Household manager (1,000 bushels)
Prêt-tsje′	八子	salaries	2,000 bushels	Part of a hall	Secretary (600 bushels)
Sn′jit-tsje′	七子	salaries	1,000 bushels	Part of a hall	Secretary (600 bushels)

Lower ranks in the royal harem also existed, though these are more akin to female administrators rather than the consort to the monarchy. In comparison, they are akin to servile concubines, rather than marital ones. They are often chosen from a young age from commoner families as menials to the monarch, his consort, or other concubines. There are also circumstances when the lowest-ranking females were criminals sentenced to slavery in the palace. Despite their modest origins, some acquire power not through sexual favours with the monarch but literary and administrative ability, being one of few opportunities for literate women in ancient Themiclesia. Particular in the queen/empress' court, where some official positions are expected to be filled with females, a talented women could often serve in much the same capacity as men of equal experience to administer the queen's fief, which could be as large as a tenth of the entire country and as valuable as whose tax revenues. While male bureaucrats have indeed objected to the lavishness of the consort's establishment, on political or moral grounds, their female counterparts have acquired support from their liege and overcome such objections. By the Meng dynasty, women ran a parallel bureaucracy in the emperor's palace that enjoyed ritualistic parity with the male bureaucracy of the outer court; though the powers of this bureaucracy was limited in terms of governance, it did manage the emperor's personal income, which grew considerably in proportion to national taxes directly administered by the state. In these situations, such females are less akin to concubines in its canonical definition than full-fledged female administrators.

Nobility

See also: Peerage of Themiclesia

Themiclesian aristocrats and elites were granted privileges to maintain concubines in their households. While the palatine princes were technically peers to the king or emperor (since 542), As the Tsjinh codices did not apply to autonomous principalities, and the Tsjinh monarchy was one amongst them, the sumptuary entitlements of autonomous princes are assumed to be equal to those of the Tsjinh monarchy. While the monarchy has created new principalities after the Tsjinh, these were financial principalities, and similarities between them and the monarchy were much diminished, compared to auotnomous ones. Autonomous principalities and fiefs were only eliminated during the restored Meng dynasty, after a general trend towards centralization. While early laws varied, particularly in autonomous principalities, in general the nobility was permitted concubinage according to their rank, in imitation of the royal concubinage. The following chart illustrates their entitlements.

Rank	Consort	Pja-njing	Rjang-njing	Prêt-tsje′	Sn′jit-tsje′	Other concubines
Autonomous princes	Queen	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Financial princes	Princess-consort	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Autononmous lords	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Financial lords	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

See also

• Themiclesia