Pansexual and bisexual emperors of the Han Dynasty, according to a 1st century BCE court historian
An entire chapter in Sima Qian's “Records of the Grand Historian” is dedicated to the AMAB lovers of emperors
史记 “Records of the Grand Historian”, published around 91 BCE, was written by two generations of court historians, Sima Tan and Sima Qian. It contains 130 chapters, including one chapter for the emperors’ female consorts and their kin, and another chapter for ythe AMAB sexual favorites of emperors, who are in turn categorized into gentlemen and eunuch officials.
The Grand Historian stated in the introduction to 卷一百二十五 佞幸列传第六十五 “Chapter 125: List of (AMAB individuals) who obtain (the emperor’s) sexual favor through flattery, #65 in the Biographies section”:
“It is not just women who used their physical attractiveness to charm [the emperor]. Both gentlemen and eunuch officials also have engaged in this”.
The following list presents the women consorts named in Chapter 49 and the AMAB favorites named in Chapter 125.
Emperor Gaozu (founding Emperor of Han)
Reign: 202-195 BCE
Women Consorts: Empress Lu, Consort Ji, Lady Bo, Zhao Zier, Consort Guan
Favored gentlemen: Ji Ru
Emperor Hui (son of Empress Lu and Emperor Gaozu)
Reign: 195-188 BCE
Women Consorts: Empress Zhang
Favored gentlemen: Hong Ru
Emperor Wen (son of Lady Bo and Emperor Gaozu)
Reign: 180-157 BCE
Women Consorts: Empress Dou, Consort Shen, Lady Yin
Favored eunuch officials: Zhao Tong, Beigong Bozi
Favored gentlemen: Deng Tong
Emperor Jing (son of Empress Dou and Emperor Wen)
Reign: 157-141 BCE
Women Consorts: Empress Bo (deposed), Empress Wang, Lady Li
Favored gentlemen: Zhou Wenren
Emperor Wu (son of Empress Wang and Emperor Jing)
Reign: 141-87 BCE
Women Consorts: Empress Chen (deposed), Empress Wei, Consort Wang, Consort Li, Consort Xing, Lady Yi
Favored eunuch officials: Li Yannian (brother of Consort Li)
Favored gentlemen: Han Yan (Emperor Wu’s childhood study companion from before he was named Crown Prince), Han Shuo (brother of Han Yan), General Wei Qing (brother of Empress Wei), General Huo Qubing (nephew of Empress Wei)
Chapter 125 concludes with the following commentary by Sima Qian:
After [the execution of LI Yannian for abuse of privileges], most of the favored palace eunuchs and courtiers loved by the emperor had come from the families of the consorts. They are not significant enough to list here.
The Grand Historian says, “Such are the vicissitudes of love and hate! The course of Mi Zixia’s life is enough to provide a preview of what can befall [rulers’] sexual favorites of later generations. Even after a hundred generations have passed, the story will still be known.”
Sima Qian and his father weren’t grand historians for nothing. They do know their (gay) history. ;-) Mi Zixia was a male favorite of Duke Ling of Wey (r. 534-493 BCE).
Between Mi Zixia’s time and the end of Sima Qian’s life, there were about 400 years, which would be roughly 16 generations, if we count 25 years as one generation. In the 21st century, we’re approximately 2500 years removed from Mi Zixia’s lifetime, which is about 100 generations.
We are literally 100 generations removed from Mi Zixia’s story, and the tale of the legendary homoerotic romance that turned sour is still known. But it probably doesn’t take ancient history lessons to teach most of us that friends and lovers can irreversibly change their affection to dislike, and what were once seen as gestures of devotion could be later reinterpreted as signs of disrespect and selfishness.
Anyway, we might revisit Mi Zixia in a future post. There are reasons to question later depictions of Duke Ling as sugar daddy and Mi Zixia as twink. The breakup of Duke Ling of Wey and Mi Zixia was more likely due to political considerations, unlike the claims of popular legend.
By the way, dear reader, if you are wondering why there is a gap between the reigns of Emperor Hui and Emperor Wen, those 8 years were filled by two child emperors, sons of Emperor Hui, under the regency of their grandmother Empress Dowager Lu, who was the de-facto ruler of the empire. (She was the 4th person to rule over a unified China, not counting figureheads like her son, or rulers of fragmented states.)
In short, the only Han Dynasty emperors who reigned before or during the lifetime of Sima Qian and who were NOT recorded as having male lovers were minors.