On what a concubine's child would call his biological mother, were the rules different for the imperial family, like with everything else? Because I was watching Nirvana in Fire and I could swear I heard the Crown Prince call Consort Yu "Mufei"
Hi Anon, another anon asked a similar question (below), so I’m going to answer the two of your together!
How does kinship work in the royal family? That is, a prince referring to his father the emperor, his paternal and maternal uncles and aunts, his mother empress and referring to other concubines. Or in the case in which the prince was born of a concubine, the same. I love your blog! ^^
So, yes, the royal family does the whole ‘address’ thing a little differently.
To answer the first anon’s question, the term he heard was 母妃 “mufei”, which is what an royal prince or princess calls their mother, when their mother is a concubine. However, I believe the mother still has to be at least at the rank of “consort”, because ‘fei’ = consort.
So from highest to lowest, members of the harem are:
Imperial Noble Consort (皇贵妃) - huang’guifei
Noble Consort (贵妃) - guifei
I believe this is actually the ranking system in the last dynasty (the Qing dynasty), and different dynasties have slightly different ranking, especially for the lower ranking ones. For the Ming dynasty (aka the dynasty before Qing), I believe they are these ones: 皇后、皇贵妃、贵妃、妃、昭仪 (chao yi)、婕妤 (jie yu)、美人(mei ren)、才人 (zairen)、贵人 (gui ren)，选侍 (xuan shi)、淑女 (shu nv). But the ones I’ve listed above for the Qing dynasty are the ones most Chinese people are familiar with.
Note that every member of the harem also uses either a given monosyllable ‘special name’ before their rank or their own last name. Only the ones favoured by the Emperor or has high enough status are given a “special name”. Once that special name is given, their last name is dropped from their title. In Nirvana in Fire, the Crown Prince’s mother at the start of the show is a Noble Consort. Her complete title Yue’guifei 越贵妃:
“越” - “贵妃”
“special name/last name” - “rank”
“Yue” - “Guifei”
In 甄嬛传, Noble Consort Hua’s last name is Nian. Hua is her ‘special name’. When she was at the height of her power, she was Hua’guifei, but when she was demoted to a da’ying, she was reduced to Nian-da’ying. At that point, her ‘special name’ was rescinded and she reverted to using her last name in her title.
Okay so now that preamble is out of the way, here we go. Note, the below address are NON-QING DYNASTY. Qing Dynasty is like... different, because they’re Manchurians.
父皇 fu’huang - fu = father, huang = imperial/emperor
What the Empress’s children should call the Empress:
母后 mu’hou - this is imperial equivalent of the formal Mother and is only reserved for the Empress. “Hou” = Empress/Queen. The empress is technically mother of all the children in the harem.
What all royal children should call the Empress:
皇后娘娘 huang’hou-niang’niang - this is a respectful way to address the queen. It’s like...Your Majesty the Empress. “Huang’hou” = imperial empress. “Niang’niang” = the address we can use towards higher ranking members of the harem, at least consort or higher.
What children of “imperial noble consort”, “noble consort”, and “consort” should call their own mothers:
What children of lower ranked harem-members should call their own mothers:
I’m actually... not sure to be honest, because in tv shows, once concubines have children (especially sons) they’re typically promoted...I guess the formal “mother - muqin” would be okay.
What royal children should call members of the harem (except the empress) who are not their own mothers:
A) If the harem member is imperial noble consort, noble consort, or consort:
“special name”/ “last name” - mu’fei
-> e.g.: Ling-fei 令妃 (Consort Ling) would be 令母妃 (Ling-mu’fei). This option is only used if the child is close to this particular harem member.
Title-niang’niang
-> e.g.: Ling-fei 令妃 (Consort Ling) would be 令母娘娘 Lingfei-niang’niang.
B) If the harem member is lower rank than consort:
If the Emperor has grandchildren, they would refer to their Grandfather (Emperor) as 皇祖父 huang-zufu = imperial grandfather. The maternal grandfather is just the same as everyone else’s 外祖父 wai-zufu.
If the Emperor’s children is referring to their dead grandfather aka the previous emperor, it can be 皇祖父 huang-zufu but it’s typically 先帝 xiandi, which means “previous emperor” LOL.
If the royal children we’re thinking of are the grandchildren of the current Emperor, they would refer to their respective paternal grandmothers (aka members of the harem) the same as everyone else aka 祖母 zumu = grandmother, but the Empress is technically their 皇祖母 huang’zumu = imperial grandmother.
The empress’s own grandchildren would of course refer to her as 皇祖母 huang’zumu = imperial grandmother.
If the royal children are referring to their grandmother the Dowager Empress, it’s still 皇祖母 huang’zumu = imperial grandmother. Or they can just call her by her title 太后 tai’hou = Dowager Empress.
By uncle I mean your father’s brothers. Your mother’s brother’s don’t get the same treatment because patriarchy. Seriously. Princess’s children don’t have to call their Uncles (the Princes) anything that special. It’s just jiujiu. Lol.
Honestly...even paternal uncles don’t really need special titles. It’s relatively the same as everyone else, but I’ve seen 皇叔 huangshu = imperial uncle being used.
Some times you could have like... 10 paternal uncles because your granddad was the emperor and he had a harem. In that case, princes and princesses really do just say “4th Uncle” or “1st Uncle” aka “da’bo”, “er’bo”, “wu-shu” etc etc etc.
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