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PALACE WOMEN AND PALACE POLITICS

The creation of the imperial structure brought major changes in the
political roles of palace women. Wives could no longer be drawn from
the ruling families of other Chinese states, nor were imperial wives the
means for establishing political alliances among states, as rulers' wives
had been in the pre-imperial period.[59] This meant that imperial wives
did not have the outside source of support and authority that had been
available to pre-Qin rulers' wives, whose natal families were themselves
ruling lineages. Moreover, the formal political participation that had
been available to royal wives in the Western Zhou and before had long
ceased to exist. All activities of the imperial consorts were to be limited
to the inner court, which meant that the only outlet for the political
ambitions of imperial women was through their ability to manipulate
the emperor. Further, because the ruler had now been elevated to an
exalted position over all the empire, he became remote from his
ministers, and the sort of collaborative relationship that had existed
between such men as Guan Zhong [OMITTED] and Duke Huan of Qi [OMITTED]
[OMITTED] ceased to exist. Under such conditions, empresses, empresses dowager,
and concubines became an important means through which
ambitious officials sought to influence and control the emperor.

Although such influence was not always bad, in most cases it worked
to the detriment of the imperial institution, and it was generally railed
against both by honest officials and by those who did not have access
to such influence themselves.[60]

Involvement in state affairs by palace women during the Han
established general patterns for the entire subsequent history of imperial
China and was generally of three kinds. First was the empress who used
her position to seize power in her own right. This was the case with
the first Han empress, Empress Lü. As the wife of Liu Bang, the
founding emperor of the Han, she shared his humble background, and
according to Sima Qian [OMITTED] (145-ca. 86 B.C.), she had "aided him
in pacifying the empire" and was hard and ruthless.[61] Moreover, the
position of the emperor still very much relied on personal abilities and
alliances and was not yet buttressed by the ideology of an imperial
sovereignty that could be violated only with strong justification.[62] Upon
Liu Bang's death in 195 B.C., Empress Lü's son inherited the throne.
Known to history as Emperor Hui [OMITTED] (r. 195-188),[63] this hapless lad
seems to have been unwilling or unable to cope with his domineering
and malevolent mother, who actually ruled during his reign. Upon his
death she placed a succession of two infants on the throne but was
so effectively in control that Sima Qian entitled his chapter covering
the period "Basic Annals of Empress Dowager Lü" ("Lü taihou ben
ji" [OMITTED]). She appointed members of her family to positions of
high authority. Four were named kings, thereby violating an oath taken
by Liu Bang and his followers that only members of the Liu family
could be kings. Others of her kinsmen were made marquises and
generals. Approaching death in 180 B.C., she composed a valedictory
proclamation naming two of her relatives to the most senior positions
in the government, chancellor (xiangguo [OMITTED]) and general of the army
(shang jiangjun [OMITTED]).

The Lü family saw an opportunity to supplant the Liu and seize the
empire for themselves. They were thwarted, however, by kings from
the Liu family and officials who remained loyal to them.[64] Although
Empress Lü failed in her bid to establish her own family, she did leave
a legacy of usurpation of authority by empresses and affinal relatives
that was to bedevil China into the present century. Her case also served
as an object lesson to those later rulers who were willing to heed it.
One who did was Emperor Wu. From his deathbed he ordered the
death of Lady Zhao [OMITTED], mother to the infant heir apparent Fuling
[OMITTED]. When asked why he had the mother killed when he had
established the son, he replied,

The second pattern of interference in the affairs of state by imperial
wives was that in which powerful male relatives used them to exercise
influence or control over the emperor. The Former Han witnessed the
rise of powerful regional families, which was fostered by the
development of the private ownership of land. As these families became
prominent in the bureaucracy and politically active on a national scale,
they maneuvered to have their daughters become the consorts of
emperors in order to improve the position of the family itself or to
strengthen the hand of whatever political faction family members might
represent. As we have seen, representatives of these families sought to
solidify their position and that of their class generally by redefining the
criteria for "good families" so that the term came to encompass only
the powerful. A consort from one of these families was no longer simply
an agent of her family but a pawn whose function was to ensure the
position of her natal family by producing an heir, providing access to
the emperor, and becoming the means for enunciating policy or even
dethroning the emperor once she had become empress dowager.[66]

One of the most important early examples of the manipulation of
an empress to achieve political goals was orchestrated by the powerful
Former Han minister Huo Guang [OMITTED] (d. 68 B.C.). Huo was the
younger half brother of the famous general Huo Qubing [OMITTED], who
brought him to court.[67] He gained the trust and confidence of Emperor
Wu, who promoted him to positions of increasing responsibility. On
the eve of his death, Emperor Wu named Huo one of the three regents
for his successor, the eight-year-old future Emperor Zhao [OMITTED] (r. 8774
B.C.). Huo Guang's granddaughter became consort and then
empress to Emperor Zhao. Following the death of Emperor Zhao in
74 B.C. at the age of fifteen, Liu He [OMITTED], king of Changyi [OMITTED], was
chosen to succeed to the throne. His comportment while he was in
mourning for Emperor Zhao proved so outrageous that Huo Guang
decided he must go. Huo convened a group of ranking officials to
discuss the situation and propose dethronement.[68] After strong initial
reluctance, thirty-six of them were persuaded to sign a memorial containing
a bill of particulars that was then read out to Liu He in the
presence of the fifteen-year-old empress dowager. The empress dowager
was of course Huo's granddaughter, and she was certainly primed on
what was expected of her. She expressed extreme outrage and approved
the measures outlined in the memorial deposing Liu He. Huo was then
free to propose another successor to Emperor Zhao. This time it was

eighteen-year-old Liu Bingyi [OMITTED], who succeeded as Emperor Xuan
[OMITTED] (r. 74-79 B.C.), assuring Huo Guang's dominance.

Huo's action was to reverberate down through the centuries, for he
had created a legitimizing precedent for empresses and empresses
dowager to assume the power of decree. He had thus provided to these
women—and those who controlled them—the means with which to
usurp the emperor's authority and, while perhaps acting ostensibly in
his name, to achieve their own political aims.[69] More specifically, Huo
had provided the model for dethroning an emperor using the authority
of the empress dowager, historical precedent, and the imperial cult. The
case was cited specifically in later dethronements, and it would provide
the model for the dethronement of Cao Fang [OMITTED] (r. 239-254) in
254.[70]

Huo also provided a model for the usurper Wang Mang, who went
beyond him and replaced the Han with his own Xin [OMITTED] dynasty (9-23)
following the death of the juvenile Emperor Ping.[71] Wang was the
nephew of Wang Zhengjun [OMITTED], empress to Emperor Yuan. When
her son acceded to the throne as Emperor Cheng at the age of eighteen,
she named her eldest brother, Wang Feng [OMITTED], regent. Emperor Cheng
was little interested in governing and content to leave affairs of state
to his uncle. Wang Feng died in 22 B.C. and was succeeded by a series
of cousins and brothers until 8 B.C., when Wang Mang, then in his
mid-thirties, became regent. The following year, however, Emperor
Cheng died and was succeeded by his nephew, who became Emperor
Ai [OMITTED] (r. 7-1 B.C.). This emperor was somewhat more interested in
his vocation, and the Wang clan found themselves challenged by the
Ding [OMITTED] clan of Emperor Ai's mother and the Fu [OMITTED] clan of his grandmother.
Wang Mang was forced to withdraw from government, though
Wang Zhengjun remained, since by tradition she was considered the
emperor's adoptive grandmother. When Emperor Ai died in 1 B.C.,
Wang Mang, who had widespread support in the capital, was able to
return to power. Emperor Ai's mother and grandmother had died, and
the emperor himself had succumbed without issue. This left the Grand
Empress Dowager Wang as head of the imperial clan, making it possible
for Wang Mang to engineer the selection of an infant descendant of
Emperor Yuan as successor. This was Emperor Ping, during whose reign
Wang controlled the government. He quickly exacted revenge on the
Fus and the Dings, ordering that the corpses of the Grand Empress
Dowager Fu and Empress Dowager Ding be exhumed, stripped of their
seals, and reburied in wooden coffins as befitted the concubines they
had once been. Empress Dowager Zhao, who had been wife to Emperor
Cheng, was degraded and driven from the imperial palace, as was Ai's
Empress Fu.

Ironically, Wang's actions seem to have been motivated not simply
by a desire to exact revenge but also by a clear understanding of the
threat that affinal relatives posed. He would not allow Emperor Ping's
mother Dame Wei [OMITTED] or her relatives to come near the capital. This
act met with disapproval from several quarters, including from Wang's
own son Wang Yu [OMITTED], who tried to arrange for the Weis to come
to court. For this effort, Wang Mang ordered the execution of his son,
along with members of the Wei clan and others. Wang was left securely
in control, a position he further solidified by orchestrating—over the
opposition of his aunt—the marriage of his daughter to the young
emperor, thereby making himself a relative of the emperor. His carefully
laid plans were dealt a blow, however, when the emperor died in A.D.
6 without having sired a son. Had Ping had a son, Wang would have
been extremely well positioned as father-in-law to Emperor Ping and
grandfather to his successor. Since that was not to be, he apparently
saw assuming the imperial throne himself as the only way to ensure
his continued power. He knew well the difficulties an affinal family
faced in carrying its dominance across generations, for had his aunt
not lived as long as she did and been willing to bring him back, he
might well have remained in the wilderness to which the Dings and
Fus had consigned him.[72]

The third pattern of interference with affairs of state occurred when
an emperor became so taken with one of his harem, especially a lowborn
woman, that he not only took no interest in governing but was
led to excesses that undermined the stability and moral authority of
the imperial institution. Such was the case with Emperor Cheng, who
was smitten by Zhao Feiyan, a slave-entertainer in the service of the
imperial princess of Yang'e [OMITTED]. He took Zhao Feiyan (along
with her sister, known to history as Brilliant Companion Zhao [OMITTED]
[OMITTED]) into his harem, where she became his favorite. When Empress Xu
[OMITTED], losing favor and anxious to produce an heir, was accused by Zhao
Feiyan of performing occult rites, the emperor dismissed Xu and
banished the members of her clan from the capital. Although Emperor
Cheng made Zhao Feiyan empress—over the protests of his mother,
who was offended by her humble background—he gradually lost
interest in her, and she was replaced as his favorite by her sister, the
Brilliant Companion. But neither sister was able to conceive a child by
Cheng. Others were, however, and a slave girl and a certain Beautiful
Lady Xu [OMITTED] each bore him a son. Realizing the threat that direct
male descendants posed to the Zhaos, the Brilliant Companion induced
the compliant emperor to kill both infants. As a consequence, when
Emperor Cheng died in 7 B.C., he left no heir, creating a succession
crisis that was resolved by the selection of a half nephew of the

emperor, a descendant of Emperor Yuan's consort of the Fu clan. There
was some suspicion that Emperor Cheng had not died a natural death,
and the Brilliant Companion committed suicide. Her sister, Empress
Zhao, was protected by Emperor Ai's grandmother, the Empress
Dowager Fu, and remained safe until Wang Mang returned to power
several years later.[73]

The patterns of activity and involvement in court politics by palace
women that developed in the Former Han were repeated and refined
during the Later Han (25-220) and, indeed, on into the present century.
During the Later Han, however, their impact was magnified by
institutional changes adopted by Emperor Guangwu. The power of the
outer court was reduced, and within the inner court the influence and
access of powerful maternal relatives and officials were curtailed. They
were replaced by a palace bureaucracy controlled by eunuchs, who thus
became imperial advisers and were able to control the flow of information
to and from the emperor. Consequently, the emperor was
now raised primarily by palace women and eunuchs. These changes
were to contribute significantly to factional struggles among eunuchs,
affinal relatives, and officials and would result in the dynasty's ruin.[74]

What is particularly striking about Later Han imperial marriages is
the continuing role played by a rather limited group of families until
the final years of the dynasty. The origins of this phenomenon are to
be found in the marriage policy adopted by Liu Xiu [OMITTED] during the
struggles that ended with his becoming the founding emperor, Emperor
Guangwu, of the Later Han. The workings of this policy are redolent
of the system of interstate marriages in the Spring and Autumn period
and presaged the marriage policy of the Suns [OMITTED] at the beginning of
the Three States. In order to construct his power base and build support
in the struggle for dominance in the wake of the fall of Wang Mang,
Liu Xiu concluded alliances with powerful clans from his home
commandery of Nanyang [OMITTED], the Northern Plain, and the Northwest.[75]
These clans were to be the dominant source of imperial wives
until the reign of Emperor Ling [OMITTED] (r. 146-168). For example,
Guangwu's first wife, Guo Shengtong [OMITTED], came from a powerful
family on the Northern Plain, and Guangwu married her in order to
gain needed support against a rival in the region.[76] Once he ascended
the throne in A.D. 25, she became his empress. The support of the
Northern families was no longer needed, however, and the Nanyang
faction increasingly dominated his government and began to press for
the empress to be replaced with a consort from Nanyang, ostensibly
on the grounds that Guangwu's eldest son, born of Yin Lihua [OMITTED]
[OMITTED], should replace Empress Guo's son as heir apparent. Bowing to
pressure, Guangwu divorced Empress Guo in A.D. 37 and replaced her

as empress with Yin Lihua, who was from Nanyang and whom
Guangwu had married in A.D. 23, a year earlier than Guo Shengtong.[77]

The Guo family had been linked with the Ma faction led by the
illustrious general Ma Yuan [OMITTED] (d. A.D. 49). The Yin family were
allied with the Northwestern faction, led by Dou Rong [OMITTED], and their
ascendancy meant that of the Dou as well. From that point on through
the reign of Emperor Ling, most imperial wives came from the Dou
and allied Northwestern families (most notably the Liang [OMITTED]) or from
Nanyang families, such as the Yin and the Deng [OMITTED]. The exceptions
were Emperor Ming's [OMITTED] (r. 57-75) Empress Ma [OMITTED] and Emperor
An's [OMITTED] (r. 106-125) Empress Yan [OMITTED], whose family was from
He'nan [OMITTED].[78] The selection of wives—as well as their dismissal—is
usually described by the dynastic histories as based on very personal
considerations, but in fact the process was clearly driven by factional
concerns, as Hans Bielenstein has cogently demonstrated.[79]

The persistence of this small group of families is quite striking. At
least two of the families, the Mas and the Dous, had been active at
the imperial level during the Former Han, and the Liang family was
already quite wealthy during the reign of Emperor Wu. In part this
persistence was the result of the extreme social stratification that had
occurred by the end of the Former Han and that had resulted in imperial
spouses being taken from a limited group of families. Whereas the
Former Han women could provide entrée to court and a way for the
family to rise (the family of Wang Mang is an example), during the
Later Han marrying a daughter to an emperor became the way to
maintain a family's established position of prominence.[80] This meant,
however, that a family's position might hang by a slim thread, and when
that connection was broken, the family would fall. The most salient
example is the Liang family, who first came to prominence when Liang
Tong [OMITTED] assisted Guangwu in conquering the Northwest. In recognition
of his support, Liang Tong was granted a marquisate, and his
son Liang Song [OMITTED] married an imperial princess, one of Guangwu's
daughters.[81] Although the family's fortunes were dealt a temporary
blow when Liang Song was dismissed in A.D. 59 on charges of
corruption, then jailed and ultimately executed, the family had arrived
at the highest reaches of government. The Liang recovered when Liang
Song's niece entered Emperor Zhang's [OMITTED] (r. 75-88) harem and two
years later bore a son who would become Emperor He [OMITTED] (r. 88-106).
The family subsequently provided empresses for Emperor Shun
[OMITTED] (r. 125-144) and Emperor Huan. A scion of the Liang family,
Liang Ji [OMITTED], dominated the government under Emperor Huan, but
after the empress died in 159, Liang Ji lost a crucial means of control
over the emperor and was unable to replace her. His high-handed

manner had won him the enmity of many, including Emperor Huan,
who turned to the eunuchs for support and drove Liang from power.[82]

Other families fared better. When Emperor Guangwu set aside
Empress Guo in favor of Yin Lihua, for example, Guo's sons were made
kings, and Guangwu continued to honor other members of the family.[83]
In this case, the claims of the author of the Later Han History
notwithstanding, the emperor appears to have understood that he was
setting aside his empress simply for reasons of political expedience and
not as the result of some bitter factional struggle or because she no
longer pleased him.[84] The Mas demonstrated how timely and effective
use of imperial marriages might save a family from destruction. In the
wake of the death of Ma Yuan, who at the time of his passing had
been under attack from the Dou faction, his faction fell from power.
Ma Yuan was posthumously demoted from marquis to commoner, and
the family had to plead with the emperor to be allowed to bury Ma
properly in his ancestral plot. Ma Yuan's nephew Ma Yan [OMITTED] was
distressed by the situation; to fend off disaster, he petitioned to have
Ma Yuan's daughters enter the harem of the heir apparent. His plan
worked. The youngest was accepted, and eventually she became
empress to Emperor He, reviving the fortunes of the family.[85]

Emperor Guangwu was very much aware of the threat that affinal
families could pose to the position of the Lius on the throne. After all,
the object lesson of Wang Mang's usurpation was still vivid. Hence
Guangwu was careful to limit the positions held by the Guos and Yins
so that they did not begin to approach those held by the Wang and
Xu families in the later part of the Former Han.[86] His successor,
Emperor Ming, made an effort to uphold the policies and institutions
of his father. He would not allow relatives of his palace women to be
enfeoffed as marquises or to participate in government.[87] But what
neither he nor his father could foresee was that most of the Later Han
emperors would come to the throne at an early age, providing an
opening for empresses dowager and their families.[88] Because empresses
dowager served as regents for minor emperors—even those who were
not their own sons—and could issue decrees in their names, they were
well positioned to exercise extraordinary authority in the interests of
their own families. Indeed, they could even control the succession, as
was done, for example, by Emperor Shun's Empress Liang. When
Emperor Shun died in 144, he was succeeded by a son by one of his
concubines. The son (Emperor Chong) died a mere five months after
ascending the throne. Empress Dowager Liang then consulted with her
brother and chose another child, though adult candidates were
available. This lad (Emperor Zhi) in turn died under suspicious
circumstances a little more than a year later, and the empress dowager

named an adolescent to succeed him and arranged a marriage with her
younger sister. Because they had supplied the empress dowager, the
dominance of the Liang could in this way be ensured.[89]

The Later Han also saw a large growth in the imperial harem.
Although the First Emperor had created an extensive harem and Former
Han emperors had permitted themselves to be distracted by beautiful
courtesans, the size of Former Han harems seems to have been relatively
controlled. As we have seen, when Emperor Guangwu ascended the
throne, he simplified the harem structure by reducing the number of
ranks from fourteen to three (honorable lady, beautiful lady, and chosen
lady). Growth of the harem under Guangwu's successors, however, was
marked, and by 165 Xun Shuang, who was to become a leading
intellectual and political commentator, was criticizing the enormous
expense and size of the harem, which he had heard contained five to
six thousand chosen ladies.[90] Girls and women between thirteen and
twenty years of age (which could mean between eleven and eighteen
in Western reckoning) were examined each autumn in conjunction with
population registration, and those adjudged suitable were recruited for
the imperial harem. They had to be virgins of good families, and they
were inspected as to beauty, complexion, hair, carriage, elegance,
manners, and respectability, and then graded.[91] If this process were
conducted on an annual basis, it is certainly possible that large numbers
of girls were brought into the palace. Moreover, although a large harem
might be considered the result of imperial extravagance, one should
not rule out the likelihood that people put pressure on the recruiters
to take their daughters in the hope that they might gain imperial favor
or at least be in a position to intervene on the family's behalf. Whatever
the size of his harem, Emperor Huan clearly enjoyed his palace women,
if not his empresses. After he sent his second empress to the Drying
Room and death, he devoted his attention to a group of nine women,
including Chosen Lady Tian Sheng [OMITTED], and although he established
a new empress, he had little to do with her.[92] Regardless of the actual
numbers of women, dedicated officials were right to be concerned,
because the growth of the harem signified a decline in the emperor's
engagement in affairs of state.