Jiajing, twelfth Chinese emperor of the Ming dynasty, ascended the throne in an unusual way: by decision of the government, after his predecessor—and cousin—died without leaving descendants. He had to ...

Wu Zetian was China’s first and only female emperor, ruling from 690 until 705 A.D. At age 13, Wu Zetian (then Wu Zhao) was chosen to be a concubine for Emperor Taizong. Wu Zetian ejected her son, ...

Japanese Emperor Akihito, center, waves to well-wishers celebrating his 83rd birthday with Empress Michiko and Crown Prince Naruhito at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo ...

Intrigue! Riches! Sex! Some violence! Not the latest movie plot, but a story that lurks in the background of some 100-year-old photographs of The Empress Dowager — once the most powerful woman in Asia ...

A BIT surprisingly, one of the best things about the “Story of Yanxi Palace”, a television drama about an 18th-century emperor that has broken Chinese viewing records this year, is watching concubines ...

115 x 62 cm. (45.3 x 24.4 in.) Subscribe now to view details for this work, and gain access to over 18 million auction results. Purchase One-Day Pass ...

New archaeological finds suggest China and the west were in contact over 15 hundred years earlier than the time European explorer Marco Polo arrived in China. The Terracotta Warriors in the Mausoleum ...

In the Qing Dynasty, the only people who lived in the Forbidden City are the Emperor's concubines, their maids, the eunuchs and the Emperor himself. Lee Lien Ying is an eunuch who enters the Forbidden ...