Qualla: Temple of the Five Concubines https://qualla.com/temple-of-the-five-concubines en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:37 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/temple-of-the-five-concubines-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Temple of the Five Concubines https://qualla.com/temple-of-the-five-concubines Temple of the Five Concubines: Introduction https://qualla.com/temple-of-the-five-concubines/ Photo credit Mk2010, CC BY-SA 4.0. Five women are buried here, in the middle of a dense residential neighborhood in Tainan, because of a decision they made in 1683. Their names were Lady Yuan, Lady Wang, Xiugu, Sister Mei, and Sister He — the consorts of Zhu Shugui, the Ming Prince of Ningjing, who had held out on Taiwan as the last significant remnant of the Ming Dynasty after the Qing conquered mainland China. When Qing forces defeated the Kingdom of Tungning and Zhu Shugui took his own life, the five women chose to die rather than face what lay ahead under a conqueror's rule. A temple was built at their tomb. It is still there.

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Image: Mk2010 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/temple-of-the-five-concubines-wp/wsj6-temple-of-the-five-concubines-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Temple of the Five Concubines: The End of the Last Ming Court https://qualla.com/temple-of-the-five-concubines/ Photo credit Jonashtand, CC BY-SA 4.0. By 1683, Taiwan was one of the last places where the Ming Dynasty still existed in any meaningful sense. After the Qing conquest of mainland China, various Ming loyalists had retreated to the island, among them Zhu Shugui, the Prince of Ningjing, who maintained a court in exile i...

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Image: Jonashtand | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/temple-of-the-five-concubines-wp/wsj6-temple-of-the-five-concubines-the-end-of-the-last-ming-court.mp3 0:06 2 full Temple of the Five Concubines: Five Names, One Temple https://qualla.com/temple-of-the-five-concubines/ Photo credit 阿爾特斯, CC BY-SA 3.0. The tomb was built, and then the temple was built in front of it. The Temple of the Five Concubines — also called the Temple of the Five Noble Ladies — became a place of veneration on Wufei Street in what is now West Central District, Tainan. It is a Taoist temple, and the five w...

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Image: 阿爾特斯 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/temple-of-the-five-concubines-wp/wsj6-temple-of-the-five-concubines-five-names-one-temple.mp3 0:06 3 full Temple of the Five Concubines: A Temple in a Living City https://qualla.com/temple-of-the-five-concubines/ Photo credit E21201, CC BY-SA 4.0. The neighborhood around the Temple of the Five Concubines has grown dense over the three and a half centuries since 1683. Tainan's West Central District is a compact urban grid of temples, old commercial buildings, Japanese colonial structures, and ordinary residential streets — ...

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Image: E21201 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/temple-of-the-five-concubines-wp/wsj6-temple-of-the-five-concubines-a-temple-in-a-living-city.mp3 0:06 4 full Temple of the Five Concubines: What Remembrance Looks Like https://qualla.com/temple-of-the-five-concubines/ Photo credit Fcuk1203, CC BY-SA 3.0. Three hundred and forty years is a long time to be remembered. What keeps these five women present is not dramatic commemoration — no large plaza, no sweeping monument — but the persistence of the temple itself, maintained and visited across centuries of political change: Ming to...

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Image: Fcuk1203 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/temple-of-the-five-concubines-wp/wsj6-temple-of-the-five-concubines-what-remembrance-looks-like.mp3 0:06 5 full