In the history of our country for more than two thousand years, there have been many strong harem strongmen with tough means, such as Lü Hou of the Han Dynasty, Wu Hou of the Tang Dynasty, Liu Hou of the Song Dynasty, Empress Cixi of the Qing Dynasty, etc. These people called the wind and rain throughout the court, just like the real emperor.
But in the 276-year history of the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible to find such a matching harem strongman, which is what kind of reason?
Why did the Ming Dynasty lack harem strongmen, and there are mainly the following reasons for this problem?
First, the political tradition of the Ming Dynasty was to oppose the harem and foreign relatives interfering in politics, and since the Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, he ordered that the concubines of the Ming Dynasty could only come from commoner families, and for their parents, only granted some petty officials like sesame green beans, so that even when the emperor was young, the concubines of the harem could not rely on their mother's family to hold the emperor hostage and interfere with the government.
Second, the civil service system of the Ming Dynasty was relatively strong and stable, even if the Jiajing and Wanli periods lasted for decades, the entire country could operate as usual, and there was basically no need for harem concubines to intervene.
Third, the first empress dowager of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Shi, made a good start in this regard, and she experienced the changes of many emperors in her life, and also maintained attention to the major affairs of the imperial court, but did not interfere too much with it, so she was also known as a "female master".
Fourth, the low status of women, the already rigid Confucianism has always restricted the activities of women in the society at that time, in this context, if there are harem concubines who dare to play the set of hanging curtains and listening to the government, they will certainly be drowned by people's spit stars.
In summary, it is not surprising that the Ming Dynasty lacked harem strongmen such as Lü Hou, Wu Zetian, and Cixi.