A Study On Religious Belives Of Empress And Imperial Concubine In Ming Dynasty

The empresses and imperial concubines are the important group in the court. Because of the close ties with the emperors, they are different from the common women and they have the higher position and greater power. Meanwhile, they are limited in the court, and restricted by many regulations. The religious belives,which help to know the life of the court in the Ming Dynasty is the important part to reflect the daily behaviour and the thoughts of this group. They also provide a profile of the relationship between the group and the political culture.Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty,he set up a series of regulations like:hung a red board with some warning on it;compiled the Commandments for Women(????)to keep the group from joining in the politics;write a lot of regulations to limit the group's religious belives in Huang Ming Zu Xun(??????).After Zhu Yuanzhang,a lot of emperors involved in religious activities,so did the empresses and imperial concubines.The religious belives of empresses and imperial concubines inclue Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism and Folk Religion. Most of them belived in Buddhism in different ways, like spiritual belief, donate the temples, print the buddhist sutras and contacted with some eminent monks. A few empresses and imperial concubines believed in Taoism and Catholicism, which influenced by the emperors were mostly emerged during Jiajing period. Only Empress Dowager Wang Dowager Ma and Empress Wang in Yongli Dynasty belived in it. Excep the institutional religion, Empress Dowager Cisheng Li also believed in Fork Religion.This group believed in many regions,and some of the group also had more than one religious belief. They prayed for having a boy through the religion. Giving birth to a boy is an important means for women to ensure the status in tne family. So it's also one of the main purpose of the religious belives of the empresses and imperial concubines. If what they had wished came true, they would reward the deities. The core reasons why they believed in religion were connected with emperors, and the religious belives became an important spiritual support for empresses and imperial concubines to live in the cort alne for many years.Because of the special identity of empresses and imperial concubines, their religious belives had closely related to practical politics. Empress Xu of Taizong belived in Buddhism, the Buddhist works she left became an explanation of “Jinnan Event”. So her religious belief and activities were given more political sifnificance. Nobel concubine Sun of Xuanzong and Nobel concubine Zhou of Yingzong experienced ups and downs. Their religious belives closely related to the status, implied a mentality of possessing power. Wanli's mother took part in the religious activities frequently and promoted the development of Folk Religion. She even got support from the public. The formation of “the Folk belif of Empress Li ” reflected the interaction between the court and the public.