ABSTRACT
According to historical sources from Han times, there were numerous palace women who used the meidao ‘art of charming’, charms to seduce and seek the favour of the emperor. Shiji (Record of the Historian), Hanshu (History of the Former Han), Houhanshu (History of the Later Han), and other historical documents record several cases.1 However, all of these cases give only a general account of how a certain woman was found guilty of a crime because of jia furen meidao ‘taking up the female way of charming’, and completely fail to mention the more concrete ideas and practical procedures of the art.
