A concubine is a woman who lives with a man and has a sexual relationship with him without being legally married to him. Historically, this role often carried lower social status than a wife. In many cultures, they served as secondary wives, sometimes living in harems or separate quarters.
Concubines were women in long-term, non-marital relationships with men, primarily serving as sexual partners, companions, and bearers of children, often for the wealthy or powerful, with their duties varying from domestic to entertainment, involving social skills, arts, and sometimes political maneuvering within harems, all while holding a status lower than a legal wife. Their daily lives involved elaborate pastimes like embroidery, music, and calligraphy, alongside fulfilling their primary roles in the household, with high-ranking concubines engaging in complex social dynamics.
Although Shusui did have a book on insects, she didn't seem to keep it at her pavilion. Pretty sure the only activities they've been shown to partake in was garden strolling, bathing, playing with their children, eating, shabonking the emperor and impersonating ghosts at night.
In contemporary civil law, concubinage is a legal term that is sometimes used for an interpersonal, intimate relationship between a man and a woman, or, depending on the jurisdiction, unmarried couple, in which the couple wish to cohabit, but do not want to or cannot enter into a full marriage.
Widowed or divorced men often took a concubina, the Latin term from which the English "concubine" is derived, rather than remarrying, so as to avoid complications of inheritance.
Concubinage still exists today in various forms. Women are not forced into it like they were, and it is still mostly among Asian wealthy class. Having a concubine or mistress is accepted as part of the culture in Asia. The role of women is still second to that of men.
Most women in ancient times were uneducated and unskilled in a trade. Providing for themselves was very difficult, and they were vulnerable to those who would prey upon them. For many women in dire situations, becoming a concubine was a much more suitable option than prostitution, homelessness, or death.
“Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled China for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age. At the age of sixteen, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor's numerous concubines and sexual partners.
The ladies-in-waiting worked as personal assistants, tending to the emperor's wardrobe, assisting the emperor's baths, serving meals, performing and attending court rituals. Ladies-in-waiting could be appointed as concubines, consorts or even empresses by the emperor or the heir to the throne.
Drawing on an episcopal visitation from 1397, the act books of the consistory court, and bishops' registers, I argue that clerical concubinage occurred as frequently in England as elsewhere in late medieval Europe and that priests and their concubines were, to some extent, socially and culturally accepted in late ...
The concubines of Abu Marwan al-Tubni (d. 1065) were reportedly so badly treated that they conspired to murder him; women of the harem were also known to have been subjected to rape when rivaling factions conquered different palaces.
From the Song to the Ching dynasties, the age of marriage was set at 16 for men and 14 for women. In the ancient times, the population of China was around 60-70 million before the Ching dynasty. Generally speaking, the population size was small. Early marriage was necessary and feasible.
Who was punished in the Bible for ejaculating out?
The person punished in the Bible for spilling his semen on the ground, an act of "ejaculating out," was Onan, son of Judah, as described in Genesis 38:9-10. God put him to death because he refused to fulfill his levirate marriage duty to his deceased brother's widow, Tamar, by intentionally preventing conception to avoid providing an heir for his brother, which was considered wicked in the Lord's sight.
Were the sons of God mated with the daughters of man?
The phrase "the sons of God married the daughters of men," found in Genesis 6:2, describes a mysterious event before the Flood where divine-like beings took human women as wives, resulting in the giant Nephilim; interpretations vary, with some seeing them as angelic beings (fallen angels), while others believe they were the righteous line of Seth intermarrying with the wicked Cainite lineage, leading to widespread corruption, with both views explaining the great wickedness God judged.
Despite the limitations imposed on Chinese concubines, there are several examples in history and literature of concubines who achieved great power and influence. Lady Yehenara, otherwise known as Empress Dowager Cixi, was arguably one of the most successful concubines in Chinese history.
Regardless of the age, however, it is common in English translation to simplify this hierarchy into the three ranks of empress, consorts, and concubines.
In 1950, the Communist Government in Mainland China had banned any man from having concubines and each man could have only one wife with marriage reform laws that recognized the equality not only of all men, but of all women, under communism. Concubinage was condemned as "feudalistic" and "backward."
The Quran prefers that a man marry his concubine, as opposed to having sexual relations with her as a slave. Marriage between free men and concubines is encouraged. If a man wishes to marry his concubine, he must free her prior to marriage.
The 2-2-2 rule for marriage is a guideline to keep relationships strong by scheduling dedicated time together: a date night every two weeks, a weekend getaway every two months, and a week-long vacation every two years, encouraging consistent connection, communication, and fun away from daily routines. While helpful for prioritizing the relationship, it's flexible, with couples adjusting frequencies to fit budgets and lifestyles, especially with children, as the main goal is to intentionally invest in the partnership.
Jesus taught that marriage is a lifelong, exclusive union between one man and one woman, reflecting God's original creation intent, and condemned remarriage after divorce as adultery, strongly implying monogamy by emphasizing the "two become one flesh" concept from Genesis. While polygamy existed in the Old Testament, Jesus pointed back to the monogamous creation account (Adam and Eve) and reinforced that "what God has joined together, let no one separate," challenging the contemporary allowance for divorce and remarriage and implicitly ruling out multiple concurrent partners.
A Mormon man in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) can legally have only one wife, as the church strictly prohibits polygamy (plural marriage) today and excommunicates members who practice it; however, some fundamentalist groups that have split from the mainstream church still practice polygamy, while the LDS church teaches that a man can be sealed to multiple women for eternity, even if only one civil marriage is performed on Earth.
