Relationships With Foreigners
The Zhengde Emperor was fascinated of foreigners, invited a great deal of Muslims to serve as advisors, eunuchs, and envoys at his court. His court was reportedly full of Muslims, and artwork such as porcelein from his court contained Islamic inscriptions in Arabic or Persian. He was also said to wear Muslim clothing and alleged to have converted to Islam. Muslim eunuchs ran many of his state affairs.
According to Bret Hinsch in the book Passions of the cut sleeve: the male homosexual tradition in China, Zhengde had a homosexual relationship with a Muslim leader from Hami, named Sayyid Husain, who served as the overseer in Hami during the Ming Turpan Border Wars.
In addition to having relationships with men, Zhengde also had many relationships with foreign women. He sought the daughters of many of his officials. The other Muslim in his court, a Central Asian called Yu Yung, sent Central Asian Uighur female dancers to Zhengde's quarters for sexual purposes. The emperor liked foreign women such as Mongols and Uighur.
Zhengde was noted for having a Uighur woman as one of his favoriate concubines. Her last name was Ma, and she was reportedly trained in military and musical arts, in archery, horse riding, and singing music from Turkestan, as well as being able to speak in several languages.
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