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Empress (pinyin: huáng hòu), referred to as Hou for short, is the title of the supreme ruler (emperor) of the empire in the history of the world.
Hou and Hou have existed since ancient times. The word "Hou" originally refers to the monarch, formerly called Hou, and later extended to "the monarch's wife and concubine", which is a position and title, not just "the woman behind the emperor".
Because of the simplification of Chinese characters, we are used to combining the words "Hou" and "Hou" into the meaning of "Hou". This is a misunderstanding. In the past dynasties, there were five rights in foreign affairs and five rights in internal affairs. Hou has all five people.
Xunzi believes that the son of heaven is the only one, and no one can be equal to him, so the spouse of the son of heaven can't take the homonym of "wife" and can only be called "Hou".
After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, he changed the emperor to the emperor and the wife of the emperor to the concubines system of the queen. The relatively complete system of concubines and hierarchical division was not really implemented until the Han Dynasty.
Imperial concubine, one of the concubines in ancient China, was used in Qing Dynasty. There was an imperial concubine under the empress. The first imperial concubine in history was Sun Shi, the heir of Emperor Xuande of Ming Xuanzong.
Sun Shi grew up in the palace when he was a child. After Xuanzong ascended the throne, he was canonized as a imperial concubine. According to an example, the imperial concubine only has a golden book, but no treasure. Because Xuanzong loved Sun Shi, he made an exception and enjoyed the golden book like a queen, so the title of "Imperial concubine" began with her.
When Emperor Xuande died, his son Zhu Qizhen ascended the throne as Ming Yingzong, and was detained because of the change of the civil fort. His brother Zhu Qiyu acceded to the throne as Ming Daizong, with the title of Jingtai. Emperor Jingtai conferred the title of Tang Guifei, which continues to this day.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Queen; Baidu Encyclopedia-Huangfeihuang