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 Did the Manchu empresses have bound feet?
No. In fact, Manchu women were forbidden to have their feet bound, as this was perceived to be a cultural practice of the Han Chinese—the majority ethnic group to which the previous dynasty, the Ming, had belonged.
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How many wives and children did the emperor have?
Over his lifetime, Qianlong had forty recorded wives, or consorts, and twenty-six children. Each wife was assigned a rank, or level, by the emperor, and could be promoted, or demoted, in rank only by him. A wife’s rank carried with it very specific rules for the kind of life she would lead at court, and determined everything from the number of pearls that could appear on her hat, to the amount and type of food she was served. The highest ranking person in imperial China was the mother of the emperor, known as the dowager empress.
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Was Qianlong the last emperor?
No. Qianlong stepped down from the throne in 1795, and died in 1799. He ruled during the middle of the last dynasty, the Qing dynasty. The last emperor, Pu Yi (also of the Qing dynasty), abdicated from the throne in 1911, when the imperial era ended.
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What is the Forbidden City like today?
The Forbidden City, completed in 1421, was designated in 1925 as The Palace Museum. Today, it holds much of the cultural heritage of China, including over one million artifacts, and is a Unesco World Heritage Site.
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