A Study of Palace Maids' Lives in the Tang Dynasty

Grounded in traditional historical biographies and documents, this book actively draws on relevant material from Tang poetry, anecdotal fiction, and accounts of the supernatural, while integrating archaeological discoveries such as unearthed epitaphs. It offers a fairly comprehensive discussion and analysis of various aspects of palace maids’ lives in the Tang dynasty, including their selection and management, daily duties, cultural and recreational activities, emotional lives, religious beliefs, personal fortunes, life expectancy, and lives after their release from the palace. It seeks to reconstruct the basic conditions of their lives and reveal their obscured place in history, with the aim of offering new insights, deepening our understanding of the lives of women in ancient China, and enriching or advancing research in women’s and social history.