Empresses and consorts selections from Chen Shou's Records of the Three States with Pei Songzhi's commentary |
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| 1. | PART ONE: PROLEGOMENON |
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 | Empresses and consorts |  |
PART ONE: PROLEGOMENON
Chapter 1: Introduction
The notion of a "turning point" as applied to the history of Chinese women
seems to have been first used by Chen, Zhongguo funü shenghuo shi, 129,
in writing of the Song, and then been picked up by others, e.g., Ebrey, The
Inner Quarters, 6, whose work in fact suggests that perhaps it would be better
to think in terms of an ongoing series of course adjustments.
See, for example, Chen, Zhongguo funü shenghuo shi, 129-172, and
Reischauer and Fairbank, East Asia, 224-225. The issue of the relationship
between broader social and economic change and changes in the status of
women is discussed by Ebrey in The Inner Quarters, 5-6, and idem, "Women,
Marriage and the Family in Chinese History."
Ebrey, "Women, Marriage and the Family in Chinese History," 218-221, and
idem, The Inner Quarters, 199.
Ropp, "The Seeds of Change." Recent scholarship on women during the Ming-Qing
and the various interpretations arising from it have been nicely
summarized by Bernhardt, "A Ming-Qing Transition in Chinese Women's
History?"
Bernhardt, "A Ming-Qing Transition in Chinese Women's History?" 50-58.
Particularly interesting is Bernhardt's assertion that the declining legal position
of women represented the codification in law of social practice—a development
ideology.
Ebrey, "Women, Marriage, and the Family in Chinese History," 204-206, 223.
This point is underscored by two steles erected by the First Qin Emperor, setting
forth the ideology of the new dynasty. The first, erected in 21 B.C., underscored
the importance to stability of men and women performing their appropriate
functions (Sj, 6.252; Watson, Records of the Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty,
52). The second, erected on Mt. Guiji [OMITTED] (or Kuaiji) in 210 B.C., is
particularly interesting for the values it reflects:
Those who gloss over error in the name of righteousness,
women with sons who remarry, unchastely turning against
the dead—
Such conduct he bars at home and abroad, prohibits unlicensed
behaviour, so that men and women are pure and honest.
If a husband behaves in bestial fashion, killing him will incur no
guilt; thus are men made to embrace righteousness.
If a wife runs away and remarries, her sons shall disown their
mother; so all will be led to clean and upright conduct.
6.261-262)
The promotion of the virtue of filial piety (xiao [OMITTED]) by the Han state must
also have contributed to patriarchy, since it often—especially insofar as it
involved duty to one's ruler and bureaucratic sponsors and superiors—
emphasized obligations between males. See Nylan, "Confucian Piety and
Individualism in Han China."
Bao, "Yinyang xueshuo yu funü diwei;" cf. Guisso, "Thunder Over the Lake,"
49. On this same privileging of yang in literature and literary thought, see
Cutter, "To the Manner Born?"
O'Hara, The Position of Woman in Early China. See also Sung, "The Chinese
Lieh-nü Tradition," and Holmgren, "Widow Chastity in the Northern
Dynasties."
Sung, "The Lieh-nü Tradition," 70-71; Mann, "Grooming a Daughter for
Marriage," 212, 213; and Carlitz, "The Social Uses of Female Virtue in Late
Ming Editions of Lienü zhuan," 117-118, 123.
See Swann, Pan Chao, and Lee, The Virtue of Yin, 11-24. Swann, "A Woman
Among the Rich Merchants," while offering a translation of the widow's
biography, is primarily concerned with comparing Sj, 129 and Hs, 30, which
contain the biographies of rich merchants.
Goodrich, "Two Chapters in the Life of an Empress of the Later Han"; Swann,
"Biography of the Empress Têng."
Yang, "Female Rulers in Imperial China"; de Crespigny, "The Harem of
Emperor Huan"; Young, "Court Politics in the Later Han."
Examples include Dull, "Marriage and Divorce in Han China"; Liu, Handai
hunyin zhidu and "Shilun Handai hunyin guanxi zhong de lifa guannian"; and
Holmgren, "Imperial Marriage in the Native Chinese and Non-Han State."
An important recent contribution is Bret Hinsch's "Women in Early Imperial
China." Although we did not learn of Hinsch's dissertation until late in the
preparation of our manuscript, we have been grateful for the opportunity to
compare conclusions about the Han.
According to Han-yi Fêng, it was only in Han times that fei [OMITTED] ceased being
used as a general term for a wife and came to refer to the wives of the nobility
and the secondary wives of emperors (Feng, "The Chinese Kinship System,"
88).
Chapter 2: Palace Women in the Early Empire
We use "early imperial China" to refer to the period from the beginning of
the Qin to the end of the Three States.
For example, Guo Moruo [OMITTED] labeled the Shang a matriarchal clan society
(Guo, Zhongguo gudai shehui yanjiu, 1-4, 271-272). Such notions were, of
course, based on the stages of historical development laid out in Friedrich
Engels' The Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State, which in
turn was based on Lewis Morgan, who wrote that the "gens" in its archaic
form embraced persons who traced descent from a common female ancestor
through females during a period when the paternity of children was uncertain
and their maternity afforded the only certain criterion of descent (Morgan,
Ancient Society, 67-68).
Mao shi 245. The utility of figures like the ones named by Chen Dongyuan
in arguing for the existence of a matriarchal or matrilineal society is diminished
somewhat, it would seem, by their archetypal nature. Supernatural conception
and birth are standard motifs in the pattern of a heroic life. See, for example,
de Vries, Heroic Song and Heroic Legend, 210-217. The culture hero Lord
Millet, as depicted in Mao shi 245, for example, passes through stages quite
like those outlined—at least for the early years—by de Vries for Indo-European
heroic legends. C. H. Wang has cogently and creatively argued that this poem,
along with numbers 250, 237, 241, and 236, constitute a set that forms a kind
of Chinese epic. He coins the term "Weniad," for these poems are informed
by the Chinese preference for wen [OMITTED] ("cultural eloquence") over wu [OMITTED]
("martial power"). See Wang, "Towards Defining a Chinese Heroism," 2629.
See also Cutter, "Brocade and Blood," 16; Cutter, The Brush and the Spur, 30; and Bodde, Chinese Thought, Society, and Science, 253, 299, 304.
Chen, Zhongguo funü shenghuo shi, 22; Ho, The Cradle of the East, 275278.
Ho (p. 277) cites twenty-four xing recorded in the Zuo zhuan [OMITTED] [Zuo
Tradition], sixteen of which contain the female radical. Any future citation of
the presence of the element for woman in such a large body of surnames as
evidence of the existence of Shang matrilineage will have to take into account
David N. Keightley's suggestion that "At a stage when male elites were likely
to have several consorts, as was the case in the Shang, . . . it would have been
offspring of which consort. . . . This suggests that the xing, written with its
female element, however it came to be used in later times, may in origin have
simply been a patriarchal notation used to distinguish within the larger
patriarchal unit the children born of different mothers" (Keightley, "Out of
the Stone Age," 21-22).
Duyvendak, Book of Lord Shang, 225; Shang jun shu, 7.15. See also Wang,
Zhuangzi jijie, 29.262; Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 327;
Xu, Lü shi chungiu jishi, 20.934; Wilhelm, Frühling und Herbst des Lü Bu
We, 346.
The debate over matrilineage/matriarchy in ancient China is succinctly
summarized in Hinsch, "Women in Early Imperial China," 494-505.
Keightley, "Out of the Stone Age;" Chang, Art, Myth, and Ritual, 9n; Chang,
Early Chinese Civilization, 185n. In the latter K. C. Chang (Zhang Guangzhi)
does admit the possibility of a matrilineal stage in Neolithic times. See also
his "Zhongguo yuangu shidai yishi shenghuo de ruogan ziliao." There has been
an effort to link Chinese tradition with Marxism on this point. It has been
suggested that the shift from succession according to merit seen in the Yao
[OMITTED]-Shun [OMITTED]-Yu [OMITTED] sequence to the hereditary succession practiced by Yu and
his descendants reflected the transition from a matrilineal society to a patrilineal
one (Wu, "Xia Yu chuanzi shi Zhongguo you muxi shizu shehui dao nanxi
shizu shehui de yi da zhuanbian," 11-16). Wang Ningsheng offers a rather
compelling description of how Chinese scholars have tried to bend
archeological evidence to support the existence of a Yangshao matrilineal
society, and he convincingly shows that such an interpretation is not sustained
by ethnoarcheological analysis of the data (Wang, "Yangshao Burial Customs
and Social Organization"). Richard Pearson also offers a clear warning of the
difficulties of drawing conclusions about Neolithic social structure—including
the position of women—from archeological excavations and the dangers of
relying too heavily on theory to the neglect of the data (Pearson, "Social
Complexity in Chinese Coastal Neolithic Sites").
Chang, Shang Civilization, 89-90, 171, 190. David N. Keightley has written,
"It is of no little social and political significance that, for the Shang elites, dead
consorts, in the role of ancestresses, were thought to play a role after death.
A dead woman presumably became an ancestress in the same way that a dead
man became an ancestor: by undergoing the proper burial rites, by the award
of a temple name, and by the offering of cult." Even so, one should not assume
from this that gender equality was obtained among Shang forebears. As
Keightley notes, "There is no doubt that the bulk of Late Shang cultic attention
was addressed to male ancestors rather than to ancestresses. . . . Most dead
consorts were not awarded temples in the first place, and no divinations were
ever performed in their precincts" (Keightley, "Out of the Stone Age," 1718,
19).
Hu, "Yin dai hunyin jiazu zongfa shengyu zhidu kao," 129-130, 133, 166169;
Keightley, "Out of the Stone Age," 15-16.
Hu, "Yin dai fengjian zhidu kao," 4; Creel, The Origins of Statecraft in China,
32-33. Chang Cheng-lang believes that not all of those so identified were
female officers at the Shang court, some of whom, because of their proximity
to the king, may have become his consorts. That Fu Hao [OMITTED] (Fu Zi in Chang's
rendering) possessed military authority was the result of her having been
elevated above the other fu through attaining Wu Ding's favors (Chang, "A
Brief Discussion of Fu Tzu," 111-113). Chang's interpretation does not
contradict the conclusion that women occupied positions of importance and
could exercise considerable authority during the Shang.
Creel, The Origins of Statecraft in China, 395; Pang, "Consorts of King Wu
and King Wen." The apparent importance of early Zhou queens would
seem to contradict the sentiments expressed by King Wu [OMITTED] in the oath
given at Muye [OMITTED] on the eve of the final battle against King Zhou [OMITTED]
of the Shang: "The ancients had a saying: `The hen should not call the
morning. If the hen calls the morning, the house should be ransacked for
baleful influences.' Now Zhou, the king of Shang, follows only the words of
a woman. He destroys and rejects his set-forth sacrifices, and does not show
any gratitude. He destroys and rejects his still living uncles and uterine
brothers and does not promote them. Thus, the great criminals and runaways
of the four quarters, them he honours, them he respects, them he trusts
and them he employs, them he has for dignitaries, ministers and officers, and
causes them to oppress the people and so commit villainy and treachery in
the city of Shang" (Karlgren, "The Book of Documents," 29 [modified]; Shu,
11.16b-17b.)
The Han commentator Kong Anguo [OMITTED] (fl. 126-117 B.C.) explained
the quoted saying as a metaphor for women becoming involved in external
affairs. When the hen replaces the rooster and crows, then the family is finished
(Sj, 4.122, 123 n. 11). The contradiction may be more apparent than real,
however. King Wu's criticism was probably directed less at Zhou's wives than
at Zhou's inability to ensure that they acted appropriately and did not usurp
the decision-making authority of the king.
Creel, The Origins of Statecraft in China, 130-131, 395. This same woman
has been identified by others as the queen of King Wu, King Kang [OMITTED], and
King Zhao [OMITTED], testimony to the difficulty of the sources for this period. See
Shaughnessy, Sources for Western Zhou History, 174-175, 208-209.
Shi, 12.6a; Legge, The Chinese Classics, 4:68. On the "Preface to the Mao
Version of the Shi" ("Mao shi xu" [OMITTED]), which has from early on been
divided into a "Major Preface" ("Da xu" [OMITTED]) and a "Minor Preface," see
Van Zoeren, Poetry and Personality, 80-115.
According to legend, Baosi was taken into King You's harem, and he became
infatuated with her. She never smiled, however, and he tried all manner of ways
to make her do so. Finally he lit the beacon fires intended to summon
subordinate rulers and their armies to the aid of the Zhou, and when they
arrived she was greatly amused by their perplexity at finding no enemy. To
make her laugh, the king repeatedly lit the beacon fires. Increasingly fewer
armies responded to his summons until, on the day he was genuinely threatened
[OMITTED] (127-200) did not think the poem referred to King You, his opinion was
rejected by others. See Ma, Mao shi zhuanjian tongshi, 2:611; Qu, Shi jing
shiyi, 250.
The Eastern Zhou can be divided into two subperiods—the Spring and Autumn
(770-464 B.C.) and the Warring States (463-222 B.C.). Scholars differ
somewhat on the dates, but the differences are not significant (Creel, The
Origins of Statecraft in China, 47 nn. 18, 19).
Melvin Thatcher has meticulously sifted these materials to produce an
extraordinarily well-researched and thoughtful description of these institutions
and practices. Our discussion owes much to his work. See Thatcher,
"Marriages of the Ruling Elite in the Spring and Autumn Period."
Thatcher, "Marriages of the Ruling Elite in the Spring and Autumn Period,"
29-32, 49 n. 8; Ruey, "The Similarity of the Ancient Chinese Kinship
Terminology to the Omaha Type," 14-15. Cf. Chen, Zhongguo funü shenghuo
shi, 34-35.
In a posthumous decree, Emperor Ping [OMITTED] (9 B.C.-A.D. 6) ordered, "Let there
be sent away the wives acquired through ying and all return home and be
allowed to marry as with the precedent of the time of Emperor Wen [OMITTED] [r.
180-157 B.C.]." The Tang commentator Yan Shigu [OMITTED] (581-645) explains
that " `wives acquired through ying' refers to those who came accompanying
the empress" (Hs, 12.360; Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty,
2:86). Yan does not suggest that these women were in fact related to the
empress. Emperor Wen's posthumous decree referred to by Emperor Ping states
simply, "Return home those from lady on down to junior maids" (Hs, 4.132;
Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 2:271).
Karlgren dated the Zhou li as we have it to the second century B.C. but
concluded that it contains material from a somewhat earlier period. See
Karlgren, "The Early History of the Chou Li and Tso Chuan Texts." See also
Boltz, "Chou li."
For example, a statement attributed to the mid-sixth-century statesman Zichan
[OMITTED] by Zitai Shu [OMITTED] in a discussion of propriety (li [OMITTED]) suggests a mature
theory about the "proper" role for women: "Propriety conforms to the
regulations of Heaven and the natural qualities of Earth, and to the actions
of people. Heaven and Earth set the regulations and the people imitate them.
They imitate the brilliance of Heaven and imitate the nature of Earth. . . . Ruler
and subject, superior and inferior are distinguished in imitation of the natural
quality of Earth [which submits to Heaven]; husband and wife, interior and
exterior [of the home] are distinguished to regulate the two kinds of work [i.e.,
zhuan, Zhao 25; cf. Couvreur, Tch'ouen ts'iou et tso tchouan, 3:379-381).
We are grateful to Melvin Thatcher for drawing our attention to this passage.
Bret Hinsch sees this shift as coming rather later, during the Han (Hinsch,
"Women in Early Imperial China," 238-239; cf. his statements on pp. 241-243).
Sanfu jiushi [OMITTED] [Ancient Happenings in the Three Capital Districts],
cited in Sj, 6.241 commentary.
Hs, 97A.3935; HHs, 10A.399 commentary. See also Hs, 4.134 commentary;
Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 1:271n. HHs states that there
were eight ranks (ba pin [OMITTED]) for the Qin harem. Bielenstein says that in the
early Han, at first only the six ranks here listed existed below empress. He
does not count lady (furen) as a rank (Bielenstein, The Bureaucracy of Han
Times, 73, 176 n). The figure eight given for the Qin in HHs must include
both empress and lady.
Hs, 97A.3935. For a discussion of the institutions of empress and empress
dowager as well as the staffs under them, see Bielenstein, The Bureaucracy
of Han Times, 69-73.
Knechtges, "The Position of the Fu in Chinese Literature," 69. See Gong, Han
fu yanjiu, 32; Chen, Sanfu huangtu jiaozheng, 79.
HHs, 10A.399, 400 n. The outspoken grandee remonstrant Gong Yu [OMITTED]
(fl. 44 B.C.) criticized this extravagance in a memorial to Emperor Yuan. See
Hs, 72.3070-3071; Liu, Han dai hunyin zhidu, 17-18.
HHs, 10A.400; Bielenstein, The Bureaucracy of Han Times, 73-74; Bielenstein,
"Wang Mang, the Restoration of the Han Dynasty, and Later Han," 259. The
text also mentions palace maids (gongren [OMITTED]), but Bielenstein, The
Bureaucracy of Han Times, 177 n, points out that these were slaves. Cf. Wilbur,
Slavery in China during the Former Han Dynasty, 69-70.
Bielenstein, "Wang Mang, the Restoration of the Han Dynasty, and Later
Han," 259; See HHs, 10B.445, 62.2055. Bielenstein, The Bureaucracy of Han
Times, 74, writes, "When the harem exploded, some of the Former Han titles
for imperial concubines were revived."
Zhao, Nianer shi zaji, 3.47; Yang, "Dong Han de haozu," 1019; Ch'ü, Han
Social Structure, 81-82. See also Liu, Han dai hunyin zhidu, 79.
Cases in point are the remonstrances by Liu Fu [OMITTED] and Wang Ren [OMITTED]
with Emperor Cheng [OMITTED] (r. 33-7 B.C.), who wanted to make Favorite Beauty
Zhao [OMITTED] his empress. See Hs, 77.3251-3254; Hj, 26.2a; Liu, Han dai
hunyin zhidu, 19, 80. Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 2:366372,
contains a good brief account of the episode.
Hs, 27A.1336-1337, 27Ba.1374, 27cb.1502; Liu, Han dai hunyin zhidu, 80.
Of course, women from prosperous families might come in for criticism, too.
Liu, Han dai hunyin zhidu, 81. On Empress Wei, see Sj, 49.1978-1980, 1983,
and Hs, 97A.3949-3951; on Lady Li, see Sj, 49.1980-1981, 1983-1984, and
Hs, 97A.3951-3956; on Favorite Beauty Yin, see Sj, 49.1981, 1984, and Hs,
97A.3950; on Empress Zhao, see Hs, 97B.3988-3999; on Favorite Beauty Wei,
whose original name was Li Ping [OMITTED], see Hs, 97B.3984. See also Watson,
Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty, 1:332-334; Chavannes,
Mémoires historiques, 6.55-64; Watson, Courtier and Commoner in Ancient
China, 247-251, 265-277; Ch'ü, Han Social Structure, 56, 77-78, 221;
Loewe, "The Former Han Dynasty," 174-178, 214; and Knechtges, Wen xuan,
1:239.
Sj, 49.1981; Liu, Han dai hunyin zhidu, 81. Cf. Watson, Records of the Grand
Historian: Han Dynasty, 1:334; Chavannes, Mémoires historiques, 6:55.
Hs, 99A.4051; Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 3:154-155;
Liu, Han dai hunyin zhidu, 81. Kings Wen and Wu were the exemplary first
two Zhou rulers. The Duke of Zhou was King Wu's brother and served as
the wise regent of King Cheng, who was King Wu's son and successor. "Full
marquis" was the title awarded for conspicuous merit in the service of the state.
See Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, no. 3698;
Bielenstein, The Bureaucracy of Han Times, 180-181 n. 363.
Ch'ü, Han Social Structure, 210-219; Bielenstein, "Wang Mang and the
Restoration of the Han Dynasty, and Later Han," 259; Mansvelt Beck, "The
Fall of Han," 318-321.
On the selection of Later Han imperial women, see Bielenstein, "Wang Mang,
the Restoration of the Han Dynasty, and Later Han," 259, 276, 280-287;
Ch'ü, Han Social Structure, 74-75; Liu, Han dai hunyin zhidu; 82-83.
Marriage could, however, be used as a tool for dealing with foreign polities.
The most famous Han example is no doubt the case of Wang Zhaojun [OMITTED]
[OMITTED], one of the most famous beauties in Chinese history and one of five women
presented to the Xiongnu [OMITTED] leader when he visited the Han court in 33
B.C. See Bielenstein. "Wang Mang, the Restoration of the Han Dynasty, and
Later Han," 236; Yü, "Han Foreign Relations," 398. See also Eoyang, "The
Wang Chao-chün Legend."
An example of constructive influence (depending on one's point of view)
exercised by the emperor's relatives by marriage was that of Tian Fen [OMITTED],
who was younger brother of Emperor Wu's mother's stepfather, and Dou Ying
[OMITTED], who was related to Empress Dowager Dou [OMITTED] through a paternal
cousin. Both were strong proponents of Confucianism, which they successfully
promoted to Emperor Wu. See Xing, "Han Wudi shengming zhong de jige
nüren"; Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 2:344.
"Hui," meaning "kind," "gentle," was the posthumous name given emperors
who had been ineffectual and manipulated, or even abused, by powerful and
ambitious officials and relatives.
Sj, 9.395-412, 49.1969-1970; Hs 2.85-92, 3.95-104, 97A.3937-3940; Dubs,
The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 1:167-210; Watson, Records of the
Han Dynasty," 135-136.
Holmgren, "Imperial Marriage in the Native Chinese and Non-Han State,"
60-76, provides an excellent discussion of the intricacies and ramifications of
imperial marriages. Bret Hinsch describes the activities of palace women in
terms of kin relations and says that when an empress dowager directed the
choice of a successor, she was assuming the status of head of the imperial kin
group, because, he says, early Chinese states were ruled by lineages rather than
isolated individuals (Hinsch, "Women in Early Imperial China," 246-247).
Huo Qubing's mother's younger sister, Wei Zifu [OMITTED], had entered the
harem and become one of Emperor Wu's favorites. She then brought her sister
and the young Huo Qubing to court (Hs, 68.2931; Watson, Courtier and
Commoner in Ancient China, 121-122).
Liu He allegedly refused to perform the mourning rituals properly, engaged
in debauchery with his boon companions from Changyi, on whom he freely
bestowed the trappings of office, and generally carried on in a highly
disrespectful and irresponsible fashion (Hs, 63.2764-2765, 68.2937; Watson,
Courtier and Commoner in Ancient China, 129; Dubs, The History of the
Former Han Dynasty, 2:180-183). It may be that Huo Guang's reasons for
wanting to get rid of Liu He, whose accession to the throne he had supported
over that of another claimant (Liu Xu [OMITTED], who was the only surviving son
of Emperor Wu and who had stronger bona fides), involved more than just
his dismay at Liu's behavior. Liu He was showing himself to be a free spirit,
having brought with him many of his followers and apparently being inclined
to bestow office and favors on them. Huo may have concluded that he would
not be able to control the new emperor and may therefore have seen him as
a grave threat to his own ability to continue dominating the imperial
government. The unenthusiastic response his proposal to dethrone Liu He
elicited from the high officials whom he sought to enlist in the effort suggests
that they might have been content to see Liu He remain.
An "illegitimate" precedent had of course been provided by Empress Lü. The
assumption of the power of decree by empresses dowager is discussed by Yang,
"Female Rulers in Imperial China," 53-60.
Loewe, Crisis and Conflict in Han China, 79-81; Loewe, "The Former
Han Dynasty," 181-184; Wallacker, "Dethronement and Due Process in
Early Imperial China;" Cutter, "Sex, Politics, and Morality at the Wei
Court."
Wang Mang's rise to power and the events surrounding his usurpation of the
throne are described in Hs, 99A.4039-4096; Dubs, The History of the Former
Han Dynasty, 3:44-259; and Bielenstein, "Wang Mang, the Restoration of the
Han Dynasty, and Later Han," 223-231. It is by no means certain that Wang
intended from the outset to replace the Han with his own dynasty, and he may
have been forced by events to take such extreme action.
On the problems facing affinal families in maintaining their positions across
generations, see Holmgren, "Imperial Marriage in the Native Chinese and
Non-Han State," 60-64.
Hs, 97B.3988-3998; Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 2:365372;
Wilbur, Slavery in China during the Former Han Dynasty, 424-432;
Loewe, "The Former Han Dynasty," 214-215.
Ch'en, "A Confucian Magnate's Idea of Political Violence," 77-83; cf.
Bielenstein, The Bureaucracy of Han Times, 150-155. He Ziquan (Ho Tzechuan)
points out that the power struggle between eunuchs and imperial offices
was unique to the Later Han and was a reflection of the broader struggle
between the imperial government and powerful regional and local elites
("Dong Han huanguan he waiqi de douzheng").
The commandery of Nanyang had its seat in the vicinity of the city of the same
name in modern He'nan.
Ch'ü, Han Social Structure, 210; Bielenstein, "The Restoration of the Han
Dynasty," 4:122-127. As Bielenstein (127) and de Crespigny have correctly
pointed out, Etienne Balazs' and other's descriptions of these families, the Liang
in particular, as "nouveaux riches" are mistaken. See de Crespigny, "Political
Protest in Imperial China," 4-5 n. 1. Cf. Balazs, "Political Philosophy and
Social Crisis at the End of the Han Dynasty," 188-189.
The role of the imperial princesses in cementing linkages between the imperial
family and powerful families was extremely important and could reinforce the
connections established by having a daughter enter the harem. Indeed, the
families best able to sustain a position of power were those whose daughters
became imperial wives and whose sons married princesses. Being married to
a princess was not an unmixed blessing, however, since her status was higher
than that of her husband and she could act quite independently. This reversal
of what was considered the appropriate roles of yin and yang bothered some
and was criticized during the reign of Emperor Xuan by Wang Ji [OMITTED] and
later, under Emperor Huan, by Xun Shuang [OMITTED] (A.D. 128-190; see Hs,
72.3064; HHs, 62.2053; Bielenstein, "Wang Mang, the Restoration of the Han
Dynasty, and Later Han," 286; Ch'ü, Han Social Structure, 57-58, 86;
Holmgren, "Imperial Marriage in the Native Chinese and Non-Han State,"
67-69).
The rise and fall of the Liang clan and the part played by the Liang women
in these events is described in some detail in Young, "Court Politics in the Later
Han." Eunuchs played an extremely important role in court politics of the Later
Han, much greater than in the Former Han. There are no doubt several reasons
for this. One, of course, is the growth in the size of the harem, which brought
with it an increase in the numbers of eunuchs. More important, however, was
the policy begun under Emperor Guangwu of reserving offices in the palace
for eunuchs. Under Emperor He, a eunuch was ennobled for the first time as
marquis, and from A.D. 135 on, eunuchs were allowed to adopt sons who could
inherit their titles. Many of these adopted sons held significant regional and
central government posts. Because of their position in the inner apartments,
eunuchs became a natural source of allies for the emperor or for the empress(es)
dowager. The best study to date on Han eunuchs is Xiao, "Guanyu Han dai
de huanguan." See also Ch'ü, Han Social Structure, 232-243, and de
Crespigny, "Political Protest in Imperial China" for the role played by the
eunuchs in the demise of the Liang family and its resulting fallout.
Cao Cao, who was the founding father of the state of Wei and whose name
rise of the eunuchs. His grandfather Cao Teng [OMITTED] was castrated as a child
so that he might become a palace eunuch. While serving in a minor eunuch
office, Cao Teng was selected to be a companion to the heir apparent. From
then on, he advanced in office, serving four emperors during a period of over
thirty years (Leban, "Ts'ao Ts'ao and the Rise of Wei," 47; Sgz, 1.1, Pei quoting
Sima Biao's [OMITTED] [240-315] Xu Han shu [OMITTED] [History of the Posterior
Han]; see also Kroll, "Portraits of Ts'ao Ts'ao," 2-3). Cao Teng's adopted son
was Cao Song [OMITTED]. There were good reasons for a eunuch like Cao Teng
to adopt a son: The son could carry out sacrifices to the family ancestors and
to the father after his death, and he could beget his own sons to ensure that
these sacrifices continued. Also, as already pointed out, the adopted son of a
eunuch could inherit from his father, thereby allowing for the preservation of
the family position (see also Leban, "Ts'ao Ts'ao and the Rise of Wei," 48;
Bielenstein, "Wang Mang, the Restoration of the Han Dynasty, and Later
Han," 287-288).
Bielenstein, "The Restoration of the Han Dynasty," 4:119-120. This treatment
of Empress Guo was quite in contrast to the other three empresses divorced
during the Later Han, all of whom were jailed in the Drying House (Pu shi
[OMITTED]), where they died.
HHs, 10A.408-409, 24.842-844; Ch'ü, Han Social Structure, 212; Bielenstein,
"The Restoration of the Han Dynasty," 4:112-114.
Emperor He ascended the throne at age ten, Emperor An at age thirteen,
Emperor Shun at age eleven, Emperor Chong [OMITTED] (r. 144-145) at age two,
Emperor Zhi [OMITTED] (r. 145-146) at age eight, Emperor Huan at age fifteen,
Emperor Ling at age twelve, and Emperor Xian [OMITTED] (r. 190-220) at age nine.
Ch'ü, Han Social Structure, 217-219; de Crespigny, "The Harem of Emperor
Huan," 4-8; and Bielenstein, "Wang Mang, the Restoration of the Han
Dynasty, and Later Han," 286. Other Later Han empresses dowager who acted
as regents included Emperor Zhang's Empress Dou, who ruled for Emperor
He, son of Honorable Lady Liang, and Emperor He's Empress Dowager Deng,
who ruled for He's short-lived son and for Emperor An, grandson of Emperor
Zhang (Bielenstein, "The Restoration of the Han Dynasty," 4:124-127).
HHs, 62.2055. Rafe de Crespigny is doubtful about these figures, though he
concludes that Emperor Huan "did indeed have a very large harem, quite
possibly more than a thousand" (de Crespigny, "The Harem of Emperor
Huan," 21). The normally skeptical Bielenstein seems to accept the figure six
thousand, which he says was "twice as many as during the height of the
preceding dynasty" (Bielenstein, "Wang Mang, the Restoration of the Han
Dynasty, and Later Han," 259, 314). The actual size of the harem probably
cannot be known for certain. The attribution of a harem of ten thousand
women to the First Emperor is no doubt an exaggeration, the term "ten
thousand" simply connoting "a great many." In the case of Emperor Huan,
however, the amount five to six thousand appears in more than one place, one
being a quotation from a contemporary source, while another citation says
10B.455, 62.2055, 66.2161). Because the contemporary figures were contained
in submissions to the throne and could therefore easily have been disproved,
it seems likely they were not too far from the truth. As shall be seen, similar
figures are mentioned for the Three States.
HHs, 10B.445. De Crespigny speculates that Emperor Huan's choice of nine
companions, a number with special significance, may indicate a pursuit of
Daoist or tantric sexual practices aimed at achieving immortality. Given
Emperor Huan's known interest in Daoism, such an interpretation does not
seem unreasonable. For an idea of what these practices might have been like,
see Harper, "The Sexual Arts of Ancient China," and for another glimpse of
sexual life in a Han harem, see Hinsch, Passions of the Cut Sleeve, 174.
Huan's lack of interest in his empress was hardly unique. Bielenstein has
noted that no Later Han empress from Emperors Ming through Huan
produced a son. He concludes that the emperors must have eschewed sexual
relations with their empresses, who were chosen for political reasons and to
whom they had no romantic attachment (Bielenstein, "The Restoration of the
Han Dynasty," 4:127). One would think that, given the machinations behind
some of the marriages, those who orchestrated them would have been eager
to have empresses produce heirs. If Bielenstein is correct, this clearly suggests
that it was difficult, even for someone as powerful as Liang Ji, to extend political
will into the inner apartments.
Chapter 3: Women in Early Imperial History and Thought
The matter is admittedly rather more complicated than this statement suggests.
The position of women in Daoism, for instance, is an interesting question.
Women like Zhang Lu's [OMITTED] mother may have been influential in the Celestial
Masters (Tian shi dao [OMITTED]) centered in northeastern modern Sichuan (Sgz,
31.867). A text of early Daoism, the Da dao jia ling jie [OMITTED]
[Admonitions Mandated for the Families of the Great Dao], written ca. 250
(HY 788), indicates that women held parish ranks (see Bokenkamp, Early
Taoist Texts and "Taoist Literature," 140). Furthermore, concern over the
plight of women in society is a characteristic of literature of the late Han and
Wei periods. The names of Cao Zhi [OMITTED] (192-232) and Fu Xuan [OMITTED] (217-278),
among others, come to mind. Although some pieces about rejected or
abandoned women from that time are read as political allegories, not all of
them should be. See, for instance, Zhang, Jian'an wenxue lun gao, 8-9; Pei,
"Lun Jian'an qi de shi," 4; Yu, Han Wei Liuchao shi lun cong, 104; Roy, "The
Theme of the Neglected Wife in the Poetry of Ts'ao Chih;" Jing, Wei Jin shiren
yu zhengzhi, 63-70; Xu, "Cao Zhi shige de xiezuo niandai wenti," 150-152;
Miao, "The `Chi'i ai shih' of the Late Han and Chin Periods (I)," 183-204;
Jean-Pierre Diény, Pastourelles et magnanarelles: Essai sur un thème litteraire
chinois (Paris: Libraire Droz, 1977); and Allen, "From Saint to Singing Girl."
Whatever sympathy for distressed women may have existed, in studying the
Han poem "Mo shang sang" [OMITTED] [Mulberry by the Path] and subsequent
literati imitations, both Allen and Diény call attention to a shift away from
folk-erotic traditions—with the sexual freedom they implied—under
conservative (Confucian) influence. Our concern here is with evolving norms
norms generally.
Liu, Han dai hunyin zhidu, 1, 7; Ebrey, Chinese Civilization and Society, 33.
See also Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China, 33.
Lj, 52.18b. Cf. Legge, The Chinese Classics, 1:406-407; de Bary, Chan, and
Watson, Sources of Chinese Tradition, 1:120.
Lj, 60.1a. Cf. Legge, The Chinese Classics, 1:357; de Bary, Chan, and Watson,
Sources of Chinese Tradition, 1:115.
See the citations by Chen at Sgz, 5.155, 34.909, 50.1203, which are translated
in Fascicles 5, 34, and 50 below.
Bao, "Yinyang xueshuo yu funü diwei," 38; Xu, "Han shi waizhuan de
yanjiu," 42. In contrast to Han conceptions of this dyadic relationship, Laozi
[OMITTED] considers the feminine role to be preferable. See Lau, "The Treatment
of Opposites in Lao-tzu," 349; Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient
China, 203.
John S. Major, trans., Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought: Chapters
Three, Four, and Five of the Huainanzi (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993), 62; Hnz,
3.3a.
Ling, Chunqia fanlu zhu, 11.3a-5a, 9a-b, 12.3b-4a, 6a; Bao, "Yinyang
xueshuo yu funü diwei," 39-40; Mansvelt Beck, "The Fall of the Han," 366.
See also Liu and Cao, "Cong xifang shengtai nüxing zhuyi de shijiao kan
Zhongguo de `tian ren he yi,' " 24-25.
Sy, 18.6a-b. The inclusion of such items in the Shuo yuan was calculated. The
work was part of Liu Xiang's effort to combat the growing influence of palace
women and affines. See the cogent discussion in Xu Fuguan's [OMITTED] "Liu
Xiang Xin xu, Shuo yuan de yanjiu."
Hs, 10.302; 97B.3977-3978. These two events in fact occurred well before
Empress Xu was established as such. She had been Emperor Cheng's principal
wife from the time he was heir apparent, and he was quite infatuated with
her. House Builder was one of the twenty-eight lunar mansions of Chinese
astronomy, and according to Liu Xiang and Gu Yong, it was associated with
the rear apartments of the Son of Heaven. We follow David Knechtges in
rendering yingshi as House Builder; see Knechtges, Wen xuan, 2:268n.
Floods and other water-related disturbances are recorded for 30, 29, 28, 26,
25, and 23 B.C., and solar eclipses for 29, 28, 25, and 24 B.C. (Hs, 10.306,
307, 309, 310, 311, 313). In addition, a fire at Emperor Jing's ancestral temple
in 18 B.C. is mentioned (Hs, 10.318). As discussed below, it was thought that
improper behavior by women could result in disruptions in the element Fire.
Hs, 10.309; Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 2:384-385.
Heping literally means "the He [Yellow River] pacified." This reign title was
adopted in response to the massive flooding that resulted when the He broke
its dikes in Dong commandery [OMITTED]. In 24 B.C., Emperor Cheng changed the
reign date to Yangshuo [OMITTED], literally "yang's beginning." The second-century
scholar Ying Shao [OMITTED] (ca. 140-before 204) explained the change thus: "At
date to `yang's beginning.' He hoped that yang would revive." The Tang
commentator Yan Shigu disagreed, pointing out that the change had been
occasioned by a stone's producing fire in Shanyang [OMITTED] (Hs, 10.311n).
Although Yan is correct about the event that prompted the change, Ying is
probably right about the underlying aspiration behind the new name. Emperor
Cheng must have been exasperated when there was another eclipse in the
second month of Yangshuo 1.
Hs, 10.318, 97B.3974-3981; Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty,
2:398-399. With life in the inner apartments, there were always additional
elements not immediately apparent. In addition to the ostensible concern over
Empress Xu's failure to deliver an heir (she gave birth to a daughter and a
stillborn son), her dismissal was also entwined with factional tensions between
the Xu and Wang [OMITTED] families. Wang Feng [OMITTED] was ascendant at court, and
some attributed to him responsibility for the eclipses (see Hs, 97B.3982; cf.
Hinsch, "Women in Early Imperial China," 459).
Fire was also the element or phase associated with the Han dynasty, which
made disruption of it doubly significant (Liu, "Handai zhi furen zaiyi lun,"
7).
The most important study in a Western language of these treatises is by B.
J. Mansvelt Beck, The Treatises of Later Han, 131-155. The title
notwithstanding, Mansvelt Beck devotes considerable space to Ban Gu's
treatises as well as to those by Sima Biao. Sima Biao's treatises—originally part
of his History of the Posterior Han—were appended to Fan Ye's Later Han
History. See Mansvelt Beck, The Treatises of Later Han, 1-2. Sima Biao's
treatises are hereafter cited as HHs, zhi, followed by the treatise fascicle and
page number as given in HHs.
The Grand Scribe's Records notes that an earthquake in the second year
of the reign of King You of the Zhou was caused by yin's suppressing yang,
a sign of the impending demise of the Zhou. The same year, Mt. Qi [OMITTED]
collapsed and the Three Rivers (San chuan [OMITTED]) dried up, further signs that
the Zhou would fall (Sj, 4.145-146; Chavannes Mémoires historiques, 1:279280;
Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe's Records, 1:73). These omens are clearly
tied in the text to the king's infatuation with Baosi, whom he made his queen
the following year, replacing his Queen Shen [OMITTED] and deposing her son as heir
apparent (Sj, 4.147; Chavannes, Mémoires historiques, 1:280-281;
Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe's Records, 1:73). This interpretation of events
is certainly a Han view rather than one of King You's time.
Hs, 27A.1321; Legge, The Chinese Classics, 5:62; Mansvelt Beck, The Treatises
of Later Han, 134.
Hs, 27A.1322; Legge, The Chinese Classics, 5:100; Mansvelt Beck, The
Treatises of Later Han, 134.
It was also thought that excessive female influence, resulting in an imbalance
136, 139).
A good discussion of the commentary and the preface, and their relationship
to one another and to the Classic of Poetry, can be found in Van Zoeren, Poetry
and Personality, 80-115.
On Baosi, see Chapter 2, "Pre-imperial China" above. In his "Han shi wai
zhuan de yanjiu" [OMITTED], Xu Fuguan has pointed out that one of
special characteristics of the Han shi wai zhuan [OMITTED] [Exoteric Commentary
on Han's Poetry] is the number of anecdotes it contains stressing the
feminine values, such as chastity and the importance of maternal instruction
to rearing a proper son. Unlike the Mao commentary, the Han shi wai zhuan
is a collection of stories, each of which (with a few exceptions) ends with a
quote from the Classic of Poetry that is supposed to sum up the point being
made (Xu, Liang Han sixiangshi, 3:42-45).
HHs 28A.955-956; Pokora, Hsin-lun (New Treatise) and Other Writings,
232-233. On Wei Zifu and her rise from lady-in-waiting to empress, see
Wilbur, Slavery in China during the Former Han Dynasty, 295-299.
A promising scholar-official might be recommended to the throne for
appointment under several categories, including filially pious and incorrupt
(xiaolian [OMITTED]), capable and good (xianliang [OMITTED]), sincere and upright
(fangzheng [OMITTED]), flourishing talent (xiucai [OMITTED]), and those who spoke
frankly and admonished unflinchingly (zhiyan jijian [OMITTED]). See Bielenstein,
The Bureaucracy of Han Times, 133-137; Hucker, A Dictionary of
Official Titles in Imperial China, no. 2418; and Lü, Zhongguo lidai guanzhi
da cidian, 416.
It is not clear which of the various He tu is referred to here. On the He tu
phenomenon, see Seidel, "Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments."
HHs, 57.1855. "Six maladies" (liu bing [OMITTED]) is a reference to Zuo zhuan,
Zhao 1: "Heaven has six humors, which descend and produce the five flavors,
which emit the five colors, which are evidenced in the five sounds. Excess [of
these] produces the six maladies. The six humors are yin, yang, wind, rain,
darkness, and light. They divide among the four seasons and are ordered
according to the five divisions. If there is an excess [of any of them], there will
be calamity. An excess of yin brings maladies of cold; an excess of yang brings
maladies of heat; an excess of wind brings maladies of the extremities; an excess
of rain brings maladies of the abdomen; and an excess of brightness brings
maladies of the mind. Woman is the property of yang and [is approached] in
a time of darkness. If [man uses her] to excess, then he will come down with
maladies of internal heat and besotted delusion" (Sk, 20.34-35).
More is implied in Liu Yu's reference, however, than just a discussion of
maladies in the Zuo zhuan. The description cited here was given by a physician
from Qin who was invited to treat the illness of the marquis of Jin [OMITTED]. Just
prior to this, however, the text quotes the famous statesman Zichan explaining
his surname and to whom he devotes too much attention. The reader of Liu
Yu's memorial would have understood the reference (Sk, 20.34).
These were by no means the only criticisms addressed to the emperor. See,
for example, the criticisms of the famous scholar Xiang Kai [OMITTED] and of Wei
Huan [OMITTED], who refused summonses to serve what they considered to be a
degenerate court (HHs, 20B.1078, 53.1741; see also de Crespigny, Portents
of Protest in the Later Han Dynasty).
Not all the admonitions delivered to the emperor went unheeded. Chen Fan
[OMITTED], who was widely respected and feared for his frank criticisms of the
emperor's failings and the corrupt influences at court, was able to achieve a
modest reduction in the size of the imperial harem as a result of a memorial
submitted in 159. The following is from Chen's biography in the Later Han
History:
At the time, enfeoffments and rewards exceeded the sumptuary
regulations, and favorites of the inner chambers increased profusely.
[Chen] submitted a detailed admonition:
Your subject has heard that for those who serve the altars of Soil
and Millet, it is the state that is important, while for those who
serve the ruler, it is the look of pleasure that is important. Now,
your subject has been blessed by the sacred court and has been
appointed among the nine ministers. When he has been received
in audience, he has never failed to remonstrate, [and the emperor]
has had a look of pleasure. The subordinate lords are symbolized
above by four times seven [i.e., by the twenty-eight lunar
mansions] which let down brilliance from Heaven, while below
they respond by apportioning territory to form a protective
barrier around the emperor's state. According to the compact of
Gaozu, if one were not a meritorious subject, one would not be
made a marquis. But I have learned of the posthumous recording
of the trivial merit of Zun [OMITTED], father of Deng Wanshi [OMITTED],
the governor of Henan, and the restitution of rank of the
terminated enfeoffment of the ancestors of Prefect of Masters of
Writing (shangshu ling [OMITTED]) Huang Jun [OMITTED]. Recently, it
has been customary to bestow benefices inappropriately, for
attendants to monopolize rewards without having merit, for
offices to be granted without regard to their duties, and for
territory to be divided without recording the merit [of the
recipient]. It has reached the point that within a single household
there are several marquises. Consequently, heavenly objects have
lost their coordinates, yin and yang are in disarray, grain does
not ripen, and the people are not well off.
Your subject realizes that the enfeoffments have already been
carried out and to speak of them would serve no purpose.
However, I sincerely hope that Your Majesty will adopt this and
desist. Moreover, in recent years, 50 to 60 percent of the harvest
has been damaged, many people suffer starvation and cold, and
number in the several thousands, eat meat and dress in silk, make
themselves up with oils, powder, and eyebrow black, and the cost
is incalculable. A proverb says, "A robber can't beat a household
with five women," meaning women impoverish a home. Now,
the women of the inner apartments—how can they not
impoverish the state? In this way, wives were taken into the
Hundred Mou Palace [of the last Shang King Zhou], and the
subcelestial realm changed; a woman of Chu was distraught
[after being set aside and banished to the Western Palace by Duke
Xi of Lu [OMITTED] in favor of a secondary wife], and disaster struck
the Western Palace. If women are collected but the emperor does
not see them, it will surely give rise to feelings of unhappiness
and bring on problems of balancing flood and drought. Prison
is the means of preventing licentiousness; office is the means to
balance abilities and order affairs. If laws are deficient in fairness
and offices do not have the proper people, then the kingly way
will be missing. But if you ask people throughout the subcelestial
realm to give their opinions, all will say that jailings result from
resentments and that rank is filled by bribery. "If there is no
ordure, the flies will not fly." Your Majesty should choose to seek
after the benefits and losses and elect to adopt loyalty and worth
[as the criteria for appointment to office]. Issue a decree of
recruitment of officials, authorize the masters of writing and the
Three Dukes, and commission them to assign praise and blame
and to give out punishments and rewards, each as appropriate.
How could that not be good!
The emperor partially accepted his suggestions and dismissed more
than five hundred palace women. But he granted Huang Jun the rank
of marquis within the passes (guannei hou [OMITTED]) and made Deng
Wanshi marquis of Nanxiang [OMITTED].
HHs, 62.2056; Ch'en, "A Confucian Magnate's Idea of Political Violence,"
81. The reader will have noted that Xun Shuang speaks of the emperor as
having taken twelve wives, whereas in the preceding quotation Liu Yu spoke
of the emperor's having nine wives. Bo hu tong, which dates from about A.D.
79, contains the following statement:
Why is it that the Son of Heaven and the Feudal Lords marry nine
wives at a time? It is to emphasize the importance of their states and
to enlarge their progeny. Why does it happen to be nine? It is modelled
on Earth with its nine provinces which, responding to Heaven's
creative force, leaves nothing without life. To take nine women in
one marriage should likewise be sufficient to meet the requirements
of the Lord's creative force. If with nine women he does not beget
children, [then even] one hundred would not produce results. The
Wang du ji says: "The Son of Heaven and the Feudal Lords marry
nine women at a time." The Chunqiu Gongyang zhuan says: "When
a Feudal Lord marries a woman from one state, then two other states
send each a concubine to accompany her, [in all three cases] with her
sister and cousin following." . . .
Some say: "The Son of Heaven marries twelve wives, modelling
himself on Heaven with its twelve months, [during which period] the
ten thousand things are bound to [complete their cycle of] life."
Po hu t'ung, 1:251-252; brackets in the original)
Despite the emphasis on nine wives shown here, during the Han twelve seems
to have been the more commonly accepted figure. It is was used, inter alia,
by Wang Mang (Hs, 99A.4051), the Biographies of Women (Lnz, 2.5a), and
He Xiu [OMITTED] (129-182) in his commentary to the Gongyang Commentary
(Gongyang zhuan, 17.19b). Cai Yong's Solitary Judgments has the following:
Three ladies (san furen): Di Ku [OMITTED] had four consorts in imitation
of the four stars of the Queen and Consorts. The brightest of these
was the principal consort, and the others were secondary consorts.
Nine concubines (jiu pin): The Xiahoushi [OMITTED] [the Xia dynasty]
increased three times three, making nine. Total: twelve. When in the
Spring and Autumn period the Son of Heaven took twelve wives, this
was the Xia system. Twenty-seven hereditary consorts (shi fei [OMITTED]):
The people of Yin further increased by three times nine, making
twenty-seven. Total: thirty-nine persons. Eighty-one royal wives
(yunü [OMITTED]): The people of Zhou emulated Di Ku's principal consort.
Further, [they added] nine times nine to increase them. Total: one
hundred twenty persons. The Son of Heaven married twelve women
at once, imitating the twelve months: three ladies and nine
concubines. The subordinate lords married nine women at once,
imitating the Nine Provinces: one wife (qi [OMITTED]) and eight concubines
(qie [OMITTED]). The aristocracy took one wife, two concubines; officers (shi
[OMITTED]) one wife, one concubine.
On Di Ku, see Fascicle 5, notes 71 and 75 below. The four stars "Queen and
Consorts," also known as the Four Sustainers (Si fu [OMITTED]), refers to a group
of four circumpolar stars (Sun and Kistemaker, The Chinese sky during the
Han, 164). "Nine Provinces" (jiu zhou [OMITTED]) refers to the territorial divisions
into which China was supposed to have been divided in high antiquity.
Although the Han History is conventionally attributed to Ban Gu, the question
of the work's authorship is very complex and unresolved. The writing of a
history of the Former Han was begun by his father, Ban Biao [OMITTED] (A.D. 3-54),
who is said to have left an incomplete work of sixty-five or one hundred
sections (pian [OMITTED]) at his death. Ban Gu undertook to continue his father's
history but reportedly was dissatisfied with what his father had done. There
is a wide range of views on the extent to which he retained, revised, or discarded
his father's work. In any event, at Ban Gu's own death, the history remained
incomplete, and the emperor ordered Ban Gu's sister, Ban Zhao, to compile
the "Treatise on Astronomy" ("Tianwen zhi" [OMITTED]) and the eight tables.
Because Ma Xu [OMITTED] (fl. A.D. 141) was also asked to complete these same
sections, it is not clear how much of the final work is from the hand of Ban
Zhao. It is beyond the scope of the present work to tackle these issues. Where
we cite one of the authors other than Ban Gu, it is because there is good reason
to think the cited text is by that person. Elsewhere, we simply refer to Ban
Gu or "the historian." Readers interested in exploring this issue further can
Historiography of the Han Period;" Li, Zhongguo shixue shi, 30-34; Van der
Sprenkel, Pan Piao, Pan Ku, and the Han History; and Lu, "Cong shixue he
shiliao lai lunshu Han shu bianzuan tedian."
The Grand Scribe's Records is divided into five sections: "Ben ji" [OMITTED] [Basic
Annals]; "Biao" [OMITTED] [Tables]; "Shu" [OMITTED] [Treatises, called zhi [OMITTED] in later
histories]; "Shi jia" [OMITTED] [Hereditary Houses]; and "Lie zhuan" [OMITTED]
[Biographies]. With minor modifications, Ban Gu and Fan Ye adopted the same
basic structure. Although the format of the standard histories now appears to
have been more or less fixed ever since Sima Qian wrote The Grand Scribe's
Records, it was by no means considered a given by historians in early imperial
China. Other formats were used; only later did the format we now associate
with the standard histories come to be fixed. A brief discussion of the evolution
of the standard histories is found in Gardiner, "Standard Histories, Han to
Sui." See also Qian, "Zonglun Dong Han dao Sui de shixue yanjin."
Some of the shorter standard histories did omit the treatises (e.g., the Bei
Qi shu [OMITTED] [Northern Qi History], Liang shu [OMITTED] [Liang History], and
Chen shu [OMITTED] [Chen History]), but otherwise they followed the ji zhuan
format.
Examples are King Wu's oath at Muye as he prepared to attack the Shang,
in which he blamed the bad rule of King Zhou on the undue influence of
women, and the case of Baosi, who was held responsible for the fall of the
Western Zhou. The mother of Duke Kang of Mi [OMITTED] may also have been
warning of the danger of infatuation with beautiful women when she advised
her son to give the three beauties in his company to King Gong [OMITTED] (r. 946935
B.C.; (see Sj, 4.122, 145, 148-149; Chavannes, Mémoires historiques,
1:265-267, 278-279, 284-285; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe's Records;
1:60, 70, 73-74).
Sj, 5.189, 190, 192, 197, 209; Chavannes, Mémoires historiques, 2:33-34, 3536,
39-40, 51, 76; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe's Records, 1:97, 98, 100,
104, 114. In one case, the marriage paid direct returns to Qin when the wife
of Duke Wen of Jin [OMITTED], who was herself from Qin, was able to intervene
and save the lives of three Qin generals who had been captured after they had
been crushed by Jin (Sj, 5.192; Chavannes, Mémoires historiques, 2:39-40;
Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe's Records, 1:100). See also Fascicle 34, notes
19 and 24.
One passing reference does suggest, however, that dowager mothers of minor
rulers already were recognized to have great authority. In 238 B.C., when the
Marquis of Enduring Trust (Changxin hou [OMITTED]) attempted a revolt against
the young Qin king (and future First Emperor), he fabricated the seals of the
king and of the queen dowager (tai hou) in order to command the government
troops to attack the Qinian Palace [OMITTED] (Sj, 6.227; Watson, Records of the
Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty, 37).
Hs, 1A.5. Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 1:32. As with a
number of other founding emperors, Liu Bang's rise to greatness was portended
when his mother, then pregnant with him, dreamed that she encountered a
spirit (shen [OMITTED]). The Han History says that the sky clouded over and there
was thunder and lightning. Her father went to see what was happening and
Han Dynasty, 1:28).
Interestingly, it was Emperor Hui who presented a problem for the historians.
The son of Gaozu and Empress Lü, he inherited the throne upon the death
of Gaozu but seems to have been unable or unwilling to deal with his
domineering and sometimes malevolent mother, who actually ruled the Han
during the years 188-180 B.C. Sima Qian did not write an annals for him,
placing the "Annals of Empress Lü" immediately following that of Emperor
Gao (Liu Bang). Ban Gu, in contrast, includes an annals for him and begins
the annals for Empress Lü's reign only in the first year following the death
of Emperor Hui.
It is true that Fan Ye's [OMITTED] (398-446) Later Han History contains a
"Huanghou ji" [OMITTED] [Annals of Empresses and Consorts], but this is
appended to the annals section of Fan's history and is much closer in form
to the biographical chapters (liezhuan) than to the imperial annals. Fan's two
annals on empresses and consorts followed the example of Chen Shou's
contemporary Hua Qiao [OMITTED] (d. 293), who consciously departed from the
format of The Grand Scribe's Records and the Han History of a monograph
on the affinal families ("Waiqi shijia" [OMITTED] in the former case; "Waiqi
liezhuan" [OMITTED] in the latter). Hua thought such chapters did not
adequately reflect the important function of an empress in complementing the
role of an emperor, so he wrote two fascicles of annals for the empresses, which
he placed immediately following the imperial annals. Fan may not have simply
followed Hua's format but incorporated his text as well. The one extant
fragment from Hua's "Annals of Empresses" is reproduced almost verbatim
in Fan's work (HHs, 10B.453; Js, 44.1264; Zhou, Ba jia Hou Han shu ji zhu,
2;515; Bielenstein, The Restoration of the Han Dynasty, 1:12).
Sj, 9.142; Hs, 3.104; Watson, Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty,
1:284; Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 1:210. Emperor
Guangwu ordered that offerings no longer be made to Empress Lü in the
ancestral temple to Gaozu and that she be replaced there by Empress Bo [OMITTED],
the mother of Emperor Wen (HHs, 1B.83). On the criticisms of Empress Lü,
see Yang, "Female Rulers in Imperial China," 51; Ch'ü, Han Social Structure,
48, 61-62, 74-83.
Other palace women were stripped of posthumous honors bestowed on
them. The mother of Emperor He, the grandmother of Emperor An, and the
mother of Emperor Shun had been posthumously given the title of empress
by the respective emperors. In A.D. 190, officials memorialized that these
women were not qualified to be called empress (bu he cheng hou [OMITTED])
because they had not been principal wives (zheng di [OMITTED]) and should be
stripped of their titles, to which Emperor Xian agreed (HHs, 9.370).
Hs, 10.330; Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 2:417-418. Ban
Biao was the father of the noted historian and writer Ban Gu; his twin brother,
the famous explorer Ban Chao [OMITTED] (32-102); and their sister, the scholar and
writer Ban Zhao.
Hs, 10.306, 318, 319, 11.333, 12.347; Dubs, The History of the Former Han
Dynasty, 2:380, 398-399, 401, 3:15-17. Only in the case of the maneuvering
to replace the king of Zhongshan [OMITTED] with the king of Dingtao [OMITTED] as heir
apparent to Emperor Cheng are events described in any detail. In this instance
they may have been described at more length because the outcome was
the heir apparent and subsequently became Emperor Ai (Hs, 11:333; Dubs,
The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 3:15-17).
Fan Ye, of course, did not write the Later Han History until well after Chen
Shou compiled Records of the Three States. Much of his material, however,
was drawn from histories written contemporaneous to Chen. Although the
reader must bear in mind the temporal relationship of the two works, Fan's
history remains useful in fleshing out our understanding of how historians of
the early empire viewed the function of women.
Sj, 49.1981-1986; Chavannes, Mémoires historiques, 6:55-64. On Chu
Shaosun and his relationship to The Grand Scribe's Records, see Pokora, "Ch'u
Shao-sun." Watson does not translate Chu's addition to Sj, 49.
The portrayal of Favorite Beauty Ban was no doubt influenced by her being
Ban Biao's aunt. See note 51 above.
Hs, 97A.3983-3988. The fu [OMITTED] (rhapsody) that Favorite Beauty Ban
composed—one of the earliest such laments by a rejected lady of the palace—
goes by the title "Zidao fu" [OMITTED] [Fu of Self-Commiseration]. Translations
include O'Hara, The Position of Woman in Early China, 232-235, and
Watson, Courtier and Commoner in Ancient China, 263-264.
HHs, 10A.400-401. The primary subjects of the "Annals of Empresses" are
those women who had "dwelled with the emperor and had held the formal
title" of empress. This includes Empress Guo, who was dethroned and replaced
by Empress Yin and whose son was removed as heir apparent. Women who
were mothers of emperors but who for one reason or another were never
installed as empress also are treated in the "Annals of Empresses." Among
them were Honorable Lady Jia [OMITTED], mother of Emperor Zhang, Beautiful Lady
Yu [OMITTED], mother of Emperor Chong, and Lady Chen [OMITTED], mother of Emperor
Zhi. Women posthumously made empress are not included, and their
biographical information is found elsewhere. Emperor An's father had been
heir apparent to Emperor Zhang but was deposed as the result of harem
machinations. Biographical information for An's grandmother, Honorable
Lady Song [OMITTED], and his mother, Dame Zuo [OMITTED], are included with the biography
of his father Liu Qing [OMITTED], king of Qinghe [OMITTED] (HHs, 5.232, 10A.401, 414,
10B.440, 441, 55.1799-1803; HHs, zhi 9.3197). Dame Zuo, whose
appellative was Xiaoe [OMITTED], is said to have been versed in historical writings
and rhapsodies.
HHS, 10A.411-412. Empress Ma's actions may have been motivated as much
by a well-honed instinct for survival as by modesty. The Ma family had suffered
she had been accepted as consort to the heir apparent that the family was
spared. She may have wished to forestall renewed factional enmity that could
hold disastrous consequences for the Ma family.
HHs, 10B.440. Cf. de Crespigny, "The Harem of Emperor Huan," 4-8. Liang
Na is reported to have kept illustrations of virtuous women close by her as
reminders (HHs, 10B.438).
Hs, 19A.732, 734; HHs, 26.3594-3595, 3607-3608. In fact, most of the
references to offices pertaining to palace women are found not in these sections
but scattered throughout the different parts of the histories. These have been
assembled and discussed in Bielenstein, The Bureaucracy of Han Times, 22,
50-53, 63-64, 69-74.
This omission was deplored and corrected by the sixth-century commentator
Liu Zhao [OMITTED], who included in his commentary a lengthy quotation from
the Later Han scholar Cai Zhi [OMITTED] (fl. second century) describing the
investiture of Empress Song [OMITTED], consort of Emperor Ling (HHs, zhi 6.31213122
n. 3). Cai's text is translated and discussed in part 1 of Goodrich, "Two
Chapters in the Life of an Empress of the Later Han."
Favorite Beauty Ban is said to have read works of self-improvement, including
three entitled Nü shi [OMITTED] [Models for Women], Yaotiao [OMITTED] [The Modest
Maid], and De xiang [OMITTED] [Symbols of Virtue]. Ban Zhao twice mentions a
work entitled Nü xian [OMITTED] [Patterns for Women] that is no longer extant
(Hs, 97B.3984; HHs, 84.2790, 2791; Watson, Courtier and Commoner in
Ancient China, 262; Swann, Pan Chao, 80, 81, 97).
The memorial submitted to Emperor Yuan by Liu Xiang and Gu Yong
criticized Empress Xu's management of the inner apartments, and her
biography states that they were concerned because she had not born a son.
A major theme of Liu's own biography in the Han History is his efforts to
rein in the influence of the affinal families, including the Xus (Hs, 36.1929;
see also Xu, Liang Han sixiang shi, 3:54-62).
On these texts, see Knechtges, "Hsin hsü" and "Shuo yüan," in Loewe, Early
Chinese Texts, 154-157, 443-445. Although the Biographies of Women and
Ban Zhao's Precepts for Women probably had a far wider influence in later
periods than either the Garden of Persuasions or the Newly Arranged
Anecdotes, neither is included in Early Chinese Texts.
English translations of the stories from the Biographies of Women are found
in O'Hara, The Position of Woman in Early China. The received version of
the Biographies contains an eighth chapter entitled "Xu lienü zhuan" [OMITTED]
[OMITTED] [Continued Biographies of Women]. According to Liu Xiang's biography
in the Han History, the Biographies has eight chapters, but the last is not usually
considered part of the original work.
Sj, 3.105-106; Chavannes, Mémoires historiques, 1:199-201; Nienhauser, The
Grand Scribe's Records, 1:49-50.
O'Hara, The Position of Woman in Early China, 9. An example of such an
illustrated text from a somewhat later period is the scroll entitled "Admonitions
of the Instructress to the Court Ladies" (Nü shi zhen [OMITTED]) held by the
British Museum. The scroll is thought to be a Tang copy of an illustrated
version of Zhang Hua's [OMITTED] (232-300) text of the same title done by the
celebrated painter Gu Kaizhi [OMITTED] (ca. 344-406). Zhang wrote his
"Admonitions" in response to the growing power of Empress Jia [OMITTED] and
her family at court (Js, 36.1072; Straughair, Chang Hua, 45). The text of the
"Admonitions," most of which appears on the scroll, can be found in Yan,
Quan shanggu sandai Qin Han San guo Liu chao wen, 2:1792. It has been
translated and the painting discussed by Edouard Chavannes, "Note sur la
peinture de Kou K'ai-tche conservée au British Museum." Illustrations from
the painting are found in Sullivan, The Arts of China, 100, and Rawson, The
British Museum Book of Chinese Art, 104, 174, 197.
O'Hara, The Position of Woman in Early China, 9; Waley, An Introduction
to the Study of Chinese Painting, 62-63; Zhao, Cao Zhi ji jiao zhu, 3.528530.
There is some disagreement over the extent of Ban Zhao's contribution to the
compilation of the history. See note 41 above.
Swam, Pan Chao, 40, 87; Lee, The Virtue of Yin, 20-21. Remarriage seems
to have been common among widows during Han times, although there are
recorded instances of widows refusing to remarry. It was extremely common
for widows to remarry during the Three States period as well (Ch'ü, Han Social
Structure, 42-43; Dong, "Cong Han dao Song guafu zaijia xisu kao," 45).
Besides Ban, Later Han advocates of the idea that widows should not remarry
included thinkers such as Zhongchang Tong [OMITTED] (179-219) and Wang Fu
[OMITTED] (85-163) in the Later Han (Dull, "Marriage and Divorce in Han China,"
34). The emphasis on widow chastity became much stronger in later periods,
however (Chiao, "Female Chastity in Chinese Culture").
Yu-shih Chen states that although the Precepts for Women may have been
written earlier for Ban Zhao's daughers, it possibly was "published" in A.D.
106 for the covert purpose of diverting would-be critics of Empress Deng's
assumption of power in the previous year. Unfortunately, the question of what
"publication" means in this context is not addressed. (Chen, "The Historical
Template of Pan Chao's Nü chieh," 244-245).
HHs, 84.2792. Yu-shih Chen has argued that Ban Zhao's original purpose in
writing the Precepts for Women was to instruct her daughters in survival
techniques for life in the households of their husbands. Chen further holds that
the virtues discussed in the Precepts derive from Daoist and strategist (bingfa
[OMITTED]) thinking rather than from Confucianism (Chen, "The Historical
Template of Pan Chao's Nü chieh"). Although there is conceivably some basis
for Chen's thesis, it is not entirely sustained by her evidence and argumentation.
Furthermore, Ban was Ma Rong's teacher, and Ma became a leading
commentator on the Confucian classics.
Interestingly, Fan Ye included Ban Zhao's biography in his "Biographies of
Women" section rather than with her father's and her brother's biographies,
thus stressing her role as a model for other women rather than her
accomplishments as an historian and scholar. Indeed, although Ban Biao's
biography reports that he had two sons and gives their names, it does not
mention his daughter. Did Fan perhaps include the text of the Precepts for
Women in Ban Zhao's biography to counterbalance her other scholarly (and
thus masculine) achievements?
The Song dynasty encyclopedia Taiping yulan [OMITTED] [Imperially Reviewed
Compendium of the Taiping Era] contains several fragments from works by
Cai Yong entitled "Precepts for Women" (Nü jie) and "Lessons for Women"
(Nü xun [OMITTED]). Cai's biography in the Later Han History lists only the second
work, and it may be that the first title is a mistake (HHs, 60B.2007; Li, Taiping
yulan, 365.6b, 459.7b, 577.7b, 714.2a, 719.2a, 3a, 814.8a).
Chapter 4: Empresses and Consorts of the Three States
On the question of Chen's selections for the fascicles we have translated, see
"Who Is Included?" in Chapter 5 below. Given the appearance of strong,
frequently martial women in genres such as chuanqi [OMITTED] (classical language
tales), one might expect to find a woman as intriguing as Lady Sun embellished
in fiction. The Lady Sun of the San guo zhi pinghua [OMITTED] [Historical
Narrative of the Three States] and the Lady Sun of the San guo zhi yanyi [OMITTED]
[OMITTED] [Romance of the Three States] are quite different figures from the
Lady Sun of Records of the Three States. In the Historical Narrative, she is
depicted as a clever fifteen-year-old maiden who helps Liu Bei escape an
assassination plot by Zhou Yu [OMITTED] (175-210) of Wu in which she is the bait.
In this version, Sun Quan initially supports Zhou's plot, but on meeting Liu
is so impressed that he sees advantages in becoming his brother-in-law. In the
Romance, Lady Sun is described as an amazon surrounded by armed
handmaidens, but she is loyal to Liu and helps him escape Zhou's trap. In this
version, however, her brother is so angry at her helping Liu that he orders his
soldiers to kill her. She escapes and accompanies Liu to Jing province. The
Romance has her attempt to return to Wu later with Adou [OMITTED] (Liu Shan),
the heir apparent, because she has been falsely informed that her mother is
dying and wishes to see her and the boy. This is another of Zhou Yu's schemes
to wrest Jing province from Liu Bei, this time by taking the boy hostage. In
one of the most celebrated sections of the Romance, Zhao Yun [OMITTED] (d. 229)
rescues the lad in the middle of the Yangtze, and Lady Sun continues on to
Wu unaware of the plot. See San guo zhi pinghua, 73-76; San guo yanyi,
1:459-472, 2:520-523; Roberts, Three Kingdoms, 409-420. If, as Andrew Lo
suggests, the Romance did not derive from the pinghua but "must be set in
[the] written tradition that precedes Song-Yuan oral forms," it would be
interesting to know at what point and how the metamorphosis of Lady Sun
occurred. See Lo, "San-kuo-chih yen-i," 669.
Note, too, that the behavior of the earlier Caos seems to parallel Cao Cao's
attitude toward the selection of men for office. He is famous for his three "Qiu
xian ling" [OMITTED] [Edicts on Seeking the Worthy], in which he argues that
ability—not virtue or social status—should be the sole qualification for official
employment. See Sgz, 1.32, 44, and 49-50, Pei quoting Wang Chen's [OMITTED]
(d. 266) Wei shu [OMITTED] [Wei History]. See also Kroll, "Portraits of Ts'ao Ts'ao,"
17-19.
Admittedly, Cao Cao married Empress Bian long before he could have
imagined the power he would ultimately hold. He had been dismissed from
office and had gone home to Qiao [OMITTED] in 178, and the following year he married
her there.
Such is the conclusion of the Crespigny in Generals of the South, 294 n. 8.
In this note, de Crespigny conveniently summarizes the data from the Records
of the Three States about Liu Bei's wives.
Sgz, 32.874, 38.969; Hygz, 6.511. See also Ch'ü, Han Social Structure, 116,
121, 147, 345 n; Liu, Han dai hunyin zhidu, 151, 157; Tang, "Clients and
Bound Retainers in the Six Dynasties Period," 112-113, 127.
There is no biographical entry for this wife or wives. Lady Gan's [OMITTED] biography
says that during this period Liu Bei "was bereaved of a primary wife on several
occasions." See Fascicle 34.905 below. Cf. de Crespigny, Generals of the South,
295 n.
See Empress Wu's biography in Fascicle 34.906 below. Ch'ü, Han Social
Structure, 43; Liu, Han dai hunyin zhidu, 151, 158; Tang, "Clients and Bound
Retainers in the Six Dynasties Period," 112-113, 127.
On the Liu ruling house, see Appendix I, Table 4. In addition to his natural
sons, Liu Bei had an adopted son, Liu Feng [OMITTED] (192-220). When Liu Bei
first arrived in Jing province (201), he did not yet have an heir, so he adopted
a son of the marquis of Luo [OMITTED], surnamed Kou [OMITTED], who was related by
marriage to the Lius [OMITTED] of Changsha [OMITTED]. In 211, Liu Bei attacked Liu Zhang
[OMITTED] (d. 219), the provincial shepherd of Yi province. Liu Feng, at the time
only twenty, proved to be a skilled and exceptionally energetic soldier. Once
Yi province had been subjugated, Liu Bei appointed him leader of the palace
gentlemen of the adjunct army (fujun zhonglangjiang [OMITTED]) and
ordered him to join the administrator of Yidu [OMITTED] commandery, Meng Da
[OMITTED] (d. 228), in taking Shangyong [OMITTED] commandery. Once Shangyong
commandery administrator Shen Dan [OMITTED] had surrendered and sent members
of his family to Liu Bei's capital at Chengdu as hostages, Feng was promoted
to general of the adjunct army (fujun jiangjun [OMITTED]) and would seem
surrounded Fancheng [OMITTED] and Xiangyang [OMITTED] and sent repeated
appeals to Liu Feng and Meng Da for assistance, they refused. They gave as
a reason that their areas had only recently been subjugated, so they were not
yet able to move. Moreover, Liu Feng and Meng Da had a serious falling out,
and Meng took his army and went over to the Wei, who rewarded him
handsomely with titles and position.
Meng wrote to Liu Feng, pointing out that Feng's relationship to Liu Bei
was not one of flesh and blood and noting that since Liu Shan had been made
heir apparent, there had been a cooling of Liu Bei's feeling toward Feng. He
told Feng that as Liu Bei moved to consolidate his position, he would be
suspicious of outsiders. For the moment, Meng said, Feng was safe because
he was distant from the capital; once he returned, he would be in danger. Meng
urged Feng to come over to the Wei. He would succeed to his natural father's
position of marquis of Luo, which could not be construed as a betrayal of
his family. Feng ignored the advice. Shen Yi [OMITTED], younger brother of Shen
Dan, rebelled against Feng and drove him back to Chengdu. Shen Yi, too, went
over to the Wei, and just as Meng had predicted, Liu Bei turned on his adopted
son.
Liu Bei condemned Liu Feng for his maltreatment of Meng Da and for failing
to go to the aid of Guan Yu. To make matters worse, Zhuge Liang considered
Feng to be recalcitrant and thought he would be difficult to control once Liu
Shan succeeded Liu Bei. He therefore advised Liu Bei to get rid of him. Liu
Feng was compelled to commit suicide (Sgz, 40.991-994, 41.1016; Hygz,
2.128, 134, 139; Zztj, 69.2180; Fang, The Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms,
1:7-8, 29, 31).
When he was newly installed on the throne, Liu Shan wanted to choose women
to fill the rear halls. Dong Yun [OMITTED] (d. 246), palace attendant (shizhong [OMITTED]
[OMITTED]) and concomitantly general of the gentlemen of the household as rapid as
tigers (huben zhonglang jiang [OMITTED]), had been charged by Zhuge Liang
with providing guidance to the immature sovereign. Dong pointed out that
in antiquity the Son of Heaven had no more than twelve wives and that there
was already a full complement in Liu's harem. Since it would not be appropriate
to add any, Dong refused to consider the matter further. As a consequence,
Chen says, Liu's respect and awe for Dong increased (Sgz, 39.986; Hygz,
7.573). Still, Liu was very fond of his harem and, Dong's advice notwithstanding,
allowed it to swell.
Yu Huan's [OMITTED] Wei lüe [OMITTED] [Wei Epitome] contains an interesting story about
Zhang Fei and the mother of Liu Shan's wives:
[Xiahou [OMITTED]] Ba [OMITTED], appellative Zhongquan [OMITTED]: [His father]
Xiahou Yuan [OMITTED] was killed by the state of Shu, so Ba was always
resentful and wanted to take revenge on Shu. During the Huangchu
period [A.D. 220-226], he was made lieutenant general (pian jiangjun
[OMITTED]). During the Ziwu [OMITTED] campaign, Ba was put in the
vanguard. He advanced to Xingshi [OMITTED], was surrounded, and took
refuge in a winding valley. When the Shu officers observed and
realized that it was Ba, they ordered their soldiers to attack him. Ba
himself fought within the abatis. He ultimately was rescued. Later,
Longxi [OMITTED], where his succor of the troops and the non-Chinese
won over the hearts of both. In the mid-Zhengshi [OMITTED] reign period
[240-249], he replaced Xiahou Ru [OMITTED] as commissioner over the
army attacking Shu (zheng Shu hujun [OMITTED]) and was in
command of attacking the West. The general attacking the West
(zheng xi jiangjun [OMITTED]) at the time, Xiahou Xuan [OMITTED], was
nephew to Ba, and Xuan was a maternal cousin (waidi [OMITTED]) to Cao
Shuang [OMITTED]. When King Xuan of the Simas [OMITTED] executed Cao
Shuang, he summoned Xiahou Xuan, who went back east. When
Ba heard that Cao Shuang had been executed and that Xuan,
moreover, had been summoned, he assumed that disaster would
certainly come to him and was inwardly fearful. Furthermore, Ba
earlier had not been on good terms with Inspector of Yong Province
(Yongzhou cishi [OMITTED]) Guo Huai [OMITTED] [d. 255], and when Guo
succeeded Xiahou Xuan as general attacking the West, Ba was
especially dismayed and fled to Shu. Hurrying southward toward
Yinping [OMITTED], he got lost and entered a deep valley. His provisions
exhausted, Ba slaughtered his horse and went on on foot. He injured
his feet and lay down beneath a crag. He sent someone to look for
the route, but did not discover which way to go. Shu learned of this
and sent someone to welcome Ba.
Back in Jian'an 5 [200-201], when Ba's niece was thirteen or
fourteen years old in her home commandery, she had gone out to
gather firewood and was abducted by Zhang Fei. Zhang realized that
she was a girl of good family, so he took her to wife, and she bore
him a daughter, who became Liu Shan's empress. Formerly, when
Xiahou Yuan had just died, she asked permission and went to bury
him. When Xiahou Ba entered Shu, Liu Shan met with him and
explained, "Your father met his death in action. It was not by my
father's blade." He pointed to his son, saying "He is a sororal nephew
of the Xiahou." He was generous in bestowing rank and favor on
Ba.
Cf. Zztj, 69.2188; Fang, The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, 2:60-61. We
are indebted to Rafe de Crespigny for bringing this passage to our attention.
The "Ziwu campaign" refers to Cao Zhen's [OMITTED] attack on Shu in 230, when
he followed the Ziwu Road southward from Chang'an (Sgz, 9.282). Xingshi
was north of modern Yang xian [OMITTED] in Sichuan province, on the southern
reaches of the Qinling [OMITTED] mountains. Longxi was near modern-day Longxi
in Gansu province.
The history of the Sun rise to domination of the South and the family's
metamorphosis from a military family to a ruling dynasty is described in de
Crespigny's Generals of the South. See Table 5 of Appendix I for the Suns as
the ruling house of Wu. For Sun Jian himself, de Crespigny has translated the
biography from Records of the Three States in his The Biography of Sun Chien.
Shi shuo xin yu [OMITTED] [A New Account of Tales of the World] says, "The
four lineages of Wu used to be characterized as follows: `The Zhangs are
commentary quotes the "Forest of Elites" ("Shi lin" [OMITTED]) chapter of the
Chronicle of Wu (Wu lu [OMITTED]): "In Wu there are the Gus, the Lus, the Zhus,
and the Zhangs, who make up the `four lineages.' During the Three States these
four greatly flourished" (Mather, Shih-shuo Hsin-yü, 243 [modified]; Xu,
Shishuo xinyu jiao jian, 8.268).
An excellent history of the development of these families is Fang, Wei Jin
Nanchao Jiangdong shijia dazu shulun. Our discussion owes much to Fang.
See also Wan, Wei Jin Nanbeichao shi lungao, 67-68; Tian, "Sun Wu jianguo
de daolu."
These attitudes, albeit for a somewhat later period, are well described in
Mather, "Intermarriage as a Gauge of Family Status in the Southern
Dynasties," 218-220.
Lesser families who did not cooperate with the Suns suffered for it. An example
is Shen You [OMITTED] (176-204). See Sgz, 47.1117, Pei quoting the Chronicle of
Wu.
A fuller appreciation of the extensive Sun marital connections with Wu elite
families can be gained from the more comprehensive tables in Liu, Han dai
hunyin zhidu, 230-232.
See, for example, tables 51 and 52 in Liu, Han dai hunyin zhidu, 230. The
fact that some of the more prominent families were willing to conclude
marriages with the Suns did not mean that all of the Wu elite found them
acceptable or rushed to form such connections. On the social position of the
Suns and their relations with the Wu elite, see the discussion in Tang, "Sun
Wu jianguo ji Han mo Jiangnan de zongbu yu Shan Yue," 19-20, and de
Crespigny, Generals of the South, 493-513.
Sgz, 15.1381-1383, 28.786-787, 48.1154-1155, 50.1200. See Fascicle 50,
notes 63, 65, and 68 below.
The background of the Xus is unclear, but given that Xu Zhen (Lady Xu's
grandfather) and Sun Jian were close friends and that Xu Kun [OMITTED] (Lady
Xu's father) fought alongside Sun Ce, it seems reasonable to conclude that the
family owed its position largely to military service.
See also Chapter 3. This motif is supported by another incident that is redolent
of the story of Zhou and Daji recounted in Chapter 3: `One of Hao's favorite
concubines occasionally sent people to the market to seize money and goods
from the common folks. Leader of the Gentlemen of the Household Directing
the Markets (si shi zhong lang jiang [OMITTED]) Chen Sheng [OMITTED] had up
to now been a favored subject of Sun Hao. Relying on Hao's favorable
treatment, he punished her according to the law. The concubine reported the
off Chen's head with a red-hot saw and dumped his body at the foot of
Panorama Cliff" (Sgz, 48.1170; Zztj, 80.2533). This was not the only time
Sun Hao ordered such a horrible execution. See Zztj, 80.2540.
For Madam Yu's remarks, see the biography of Empress Mao in Fascicle 5.167
below. See also Liu, Han dai hunyin zhidu, 150-151.
On Madam Ren, see the Wei History in commentary [I] in Fascicle 5.159 below.
On Madam Yu, see the biography of Empress Mao in Fascicle 5.167 below.
See also Liu, Han dai hunyin zhidu, 150.
Zhang Fei's wife had not, of course, married Zhang willingly. See note 21
above. The biography of her father Xiahou Yuan indicates that the family was
descended from one of Gaozu's most important supporters, Xiahou Ying [OMITTED]
[OMITTED] (Sgz, 9.267, 270).
HHs, 49.1658. On Zhongchang Tong's political ideas and his Frankly
Speaking, see Balazs, "Political Thought and Social Crisis at the End of the
Han Dynasty" 213-225.
Sgz, 2.80; Fang, The Chronicles of Three Kingdoms, 1:105-106, 124. See also
Mansvelt Beck, "The Fall of Han," 366. Records of the Three States does say,
however, that Empress Guo was a shrewd strategist and that she occasionally
gave Cao Pi advice. See Sgz, 5.164 (translated at Fascicle 5.164 below).
See note 37 above and, on Sun Jian's younger sister, the biography of Lady
Xu at Fascicle 50.1197 below.
On Lady Sun, see the preceding discussion and note 3 in this chapter, and
Fascicle 34, note 23 below.
See the Wei Epitome passage in Fascicle 5 at commentary [E] below. See also
Sgz, 24.686; Fang, The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, 1:487.
Sgz, 3.104-105. For another translation of the pertinent passage, see Fang,
The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, 1:487. Hucker notes that cairen was
"a designation occasionally awarded to an imperial consort; in [the period in
question, it] ranked from 1,000 bushels down" (Hucker, A Dictionary of
Official Titles in Imperial China, no. 6830). On the titles of women in the
Wei harem, see Fascicle 5.155-156 and Table 1 of Appendix I.
Shangbao may be a conflation of nü shangshu and baolin [OMITTED], rendered as
"soothing maid" by Bielenstein, The Bureaucracy of Han Times, 74. "Soothing
97A.3935, 3936 commentary).
Chapter 5: Records of the Three States
Perhaps the era of the sagas for Icelanders and the semimythical age of King
Arthur for the English are vaguely comparable. The Arthurian comparison has
occurred to others. See, for example, de Crespigny, "Man from the Margin."
This is true not only for China but Korea as well. The "Dong yi zhuan" [OMITTED]
[OMITTED] in the San guo zhi is an essential source for information on early Korean
history. See Guksa pyuncan yuwenhoi, Chungguk jungsa Chosunjun, 201. Kim
Pu-sik's [OMITTED] (1075-1151) Samguk sagi [OMITTED] [Records of Three
Kingdoms], the earliest Korean official history, relies heavily on Chen's Records
of the Three States and Fan Ye's Later Han History for this period. Fan's
account, it should be mentioned, derives from Chen shou's. On Samguk sagi,
see Kim, A Bibliographical Guide to Traditional Korean Sources, 11-17.
Leban, "Ts'ao Ts'ao and the Rise of Wei," 30. See also de Crespigny, The
Records of the Three Kingdoms, 1. References to Records of the Three States
can crop up in surprising contexts. An essay by Stephen West mentions a late
Yuan [OMITTED] (1260-1368) text that contains a passage about the bickering between
a singer and her madam. The singer sings, in part:
I play four or five rounds of "iron cavalry" at the theater,
Only to find six or seven scenes of warfare waiting for me at
home.
What I sing is "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms," preceded by
ten Great Songs,
But my mother [bests me] with the "History of the Five Epochs,"
with the "Eight Yang Classic" stuck on for good measure."
The "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" mentioned here is, of course, San
guo zhi. The title had entered the popular vocabulary. As West goes on to write,
"the contextualization of Taoist and secular historical canons in such a
metaphorical world, where they wind up meaning the unending and complex
nagging of a money-grubbing madam, means that they are absorbed at quite
a different level than in scholarly or religious debate. They are assimilated
because of sound, not sense" (West, "Heart Sutra"). The Yuan text in question
is Zhugongdiao fengyue Ziyunting zaju [OMITTED] by Shi
Junbao [OMITTED]. This passage is also translated with differences in Idema and
West, Chinese Theater 1100-1400, 259.
On the importance of Guan Yu, see Cai, Taiwan de siji yu zongjiao, 107-112,
and Duara, "Superscribing Symbols." See also Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China, 25.
It is sometimes forgotten that the Later Han History postdates Records of the
Three States by more than a century. In other words, among the standard
official histories (zheng shi [OMITTED]), Records of the Three States is the immediate
descendant of The Grand Scribe's Records and the Han History. See also Miao,
San guo zhi daodu, 1. For an account of other historiographical activity
between the Han History and Records of the Three States, see Bielenstein, The
Restoration of the Han Dynasty, 10-13.
Fang, The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms. Rafe de Crespigny, who has
written a great deal about the Three States period, deserves mention with Fang.
His new book, To Establish Peace, appeared just as we were completing our
work.
Fang translates the Zi zhi tong jian passages in his text. In his notes, he indicates
differences between the Zi zhi tong jian account and that of San guo zhi, usually
translating the San guo zhi version there. When we note the existence of a
Fang translation of a given passage, two sets of page numbers may be given.
This is because it is sometimes necessary to check both his text and notes and
engage in a certain amount of mental editing to see how he translates a given
San guo zhi passage. For a somewhat dated list of translations from San guo
zhi, see Frankel, Catalogue of Translations from the Chinese Dynastic
Histories, 11-55. Although Frankel's more than thirty pages of listings may
make it seem as though a great deal has been done, that is not the case, for
he catalogues passages as short as twenty-five graphs, less than one full line
on one page of the 1,510-page Zhonghua shuju edition, our base text.
A complete Japanese translation of the text and commentary is Imataka,
Inami, and Kominami, Sangoku shi. There are at least seven complete
translations into modern Chinese. Six of these (Fang, San guo zhi zhu yi; Baihua
San guo zhi; Wang, Baihua San guo zhi; Tian and Wu, San guo zhi jin yi; Liu,
San guo zhi; and Su, San guo zhi jin zhu jin yi) do not include a translation
of Pei Songzhi's commentary. To our knowledge the only one that does is Cao,
Baihua San guo zhi, and it occasionally omits portions of the commentary.
The translations into modern Chinese of selected portions of the text that
comprise Lu and Hai's San guo zhi xuan yi and Tong, Zhang, and Zhang's
San guo zhi jinghua zhu yi also lack translations of the commentary.
Anhan was in the vicinity of modern Nanchong [OMITTED], Sichuan. Chen Shou,
whose appellative is Chengzuo [OMITTED], has two early biographies. One is the
official biography in Js, 82.2137-2138. The other is in Hygz, 11.849-852. The
biographical sketch that follows here draws on these two sources and is also
much indebted to Miao Yue's work on Chen's life published in various sources
cited below.
Qiao Zhou compiled a Hou Han ji [OMITTED] [Later Han Annals] and a Gu shi
kao [OMITTED] [Investigations in Ancient History] (Bielenstein, The Restoration
of the Han Dynasty, 12). As Sima Biao points out in his preface to Xu Han
shu, Gu shi kao was a commentary to the pre-Han sections of Sima Qian's
Shi ji (Js, 82.2142; Mansvelt Beck, The Treatises of Later Han, 31). Other
titles attributed to Qiao are a Shu ben ji [OMITTED], San Ba ji [OMITTED], and Yizhou
zhi [OMITTED] (see Sgz, 38.975 n; Sui, 33.983; Wx, 4.22b; Mansvelt Beck, The
Treatises of Later Han, 30). He was also noted for his knowledge of the
prophetic-apocryphal textual tradition and for his ability to predict the future.
Medieval China," 117.
Hygz, 11.849. Js, 82.2137 says that Chen Shou was a guan'ge lingshi [OMITTED]
[OMITTED]. Miao Yue thinks guan'ge simply refers to the Dongguan, or Eastern
Lodge, the main library of the Later Han and the location of the archivists'
offices. This would mean Chen was a foreman clerk (lingshi) of the Eastern
Lodge. Miao conjectures that perhaps Chen was first a foreman clerk and later
rose to be a gentleman (lang) in the library (Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 12).
On the "synthesized title" sanji Huangmen shilang, see Rogers, The Chronicle
of Fu Chien, 201.
Js, 82.2137; Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 2; de Crespigny, The Records of the
Three Kingdoms, 3, 32. De Crespigny thinks Chen was criticized "both for
his unfilial concern with his own comfort and also for his casual relationship
with the woman."
On "filially pious and incorrupt" see Chapter 3, note 35. Chen may have had
to take an examination to gain office.
Here we adopt Qian Daxin's [OMITTED] (1728-1804) emendation of the Jin
History text of Chen Shou's biography. See Js, 82.2160, and Miao, San guo
zhi daodu, 2. Miao also thinks that while serving as assistant gentleman editor
and gentleman editor, Chen was named an impartial and just (zhongzheng [OMITTED]
[OMITTED]) from Baxi commandery (Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 2, 12, 13). Holders
of the office impartial and just ("rectifier" in Hucker's translation) nominated
and classified candidates for government service from their home areas. On
this system, see Holzman, "Les débuts du système médiéval de choix et de
classement des fonctionnaires," 387-414; Hucker, A Dictionary of Official
Titles in Imperial China, 22 and no. 1534; and Miyazaki, Kyūhin hanjin hō
no kenkyū.
Sgz, 35.929, 931; Miao, "Chen Shou yu San guo zhi," 313; Miao, San guo
zhi daodu, 2; Wen Xuchu [OMITTED], "Bian jiao shuoming" [OMITTED] [Editorial
Explanation], in Duan and Wen, Zhuge Liang ji. Chen's edition was lost by
Song [OMITTED] times (960-1279).
Records of the Three States was not Chen's only historical work. He also
authored Yibu qijiu zhuan [OMITTED] [Accounts of the Elders of Yi Region]
in ten juan and Gu guo zhi [OMITTED] [Records of Ancient States] in fifty sections,
both now lost (Hygz, 11.849; Js, 82.2138; Miao, "Chen Shou yu San guo zhi,"
315; Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 3).
The Jin History states that when the Jin general Wang Jun [OMITTED] captured Jianye
[OMITTED] on the day renyin [OMITTED] in the third month of Taikang [OMITTED] 1 (1 May
280), he seized the charts and records of the Wu government (Js, 3.71). If Chen
utilized these materials in writing his history, it would probably have been a
year or more after the fall of Wu before he was able to complete the work.
The "Preface" to the Harvard-Yenching index to the San guo zhi concludes
that Chen must have begun writing the Records after the fall of Wu (280) and
completed it no later than 289, the year Xun Xu died (San guo zhi Pei zhu
zonghe yinde, ii-iii).
Js, 82.2137; Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 4; Miao, "Chen Shou yu San guo zhi,"
315-316. Xiahou Zhan was from an important family that had had close ties
with the Caos. He was noted for his literary talent and was sometimes
mentioned together with the famous poet Pan Yue [OMITTED] (247-300). See Js,
55.1491. Two hundred years later, the great literary critic and theorist Liu Xie
[OMITTED] (ca. 465-ca. 522) also praised Chen Shou's San guo zhi highly (Fan,
Wenxin diaolong zhu, 4.285). Cf. Luo, Wei Jin Nanbeichao wenhua shi, 433.
Hygz, 11.849. Changguang was a commandery that lay in the region of
modern Shandong that includes Qingdao [OMITTED].
Js, 82.2138; cf. Hygz, 11.849; Zztj, 80.2543-2545; Han, Wei Jin Nanbeichao
shigang, 111; Rogers, The Chronicle of Fu Chien, 272 n.
See Leban, "Ts'ao Ts'ao and the Rise of Wei," 3-19; Miao, "Chen Shou yu
San guo zhi," 315; Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 3.
See Shen, San guo zhi zhu suo yin shu mu, 1.16b; Miao, San guo zhi daodu,
3; Leban, "Ts'ao Ts'ao and the Rise of Wei," 11; Kroll, "Portraits of Ts'ao
Ts'ao," 120-121.
Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 3-4. Wei Zhao is called Wei Yao [OMITTED] in his
biography in Sgz, 65.1460-1464. Pei Songzhi notes that the change was made
in Jin times to avoid a tabooed personal name (Sgz, 65.1460). The name to
be avoided would have been that of Sima Zhao [OMITTED] (Leban, "Ts'ao Ts'ao
and the Rise of Wei," 11). But Qian Daxin shows that Records of the Three
States is not at all rigorous in its avoidance of rulers' names and lists a number
of people named Zhao who appear with their names unaltered in the history.
His conclusion is that Wei must have had two names (Sgz jijie, 65.9a).
Yu Huan was a gentleman-of-the-household (zhonglang [OMITTED]) under the Wei.
St, 12.13a indicates that the Wei Epitome stopped with the reign of Emperor
Ming, but this is an error, for Zhang Pengyi [OMITTED] shows that events of the
time of Cao Huan are included (Sgz jijie, 1.86a; Miao, San guo zhi daodu,
4; Leban, "Ts'ao Ts'ao and the Rise of Wei," 15).
Leban, "Ts'ao Ts'ao and the Rise of Wei," 12; Sgz, 33.902. The assertion that
"no one was in charge of note-taking and record-keeping" (zhu ji wu guan
[OMITTED]) may be a reference to the diaries of activity and repose (qiju zhu
[OMITTED]). At any rate, the celebrated Tang [OMITTED] dynasty (618-907) historian and
historiographer Liu Zhiji [OMITTED] (661-721) and others have asserted that
Chen Shou is lying here. Chen's putative motive was a desire to defame Zhuge
Liang. Convincing arguments by scholars such as He Zhuo [OMITTED] (1661-1722),
Liu Xianxin [OMITTED], Lu Bi, Miao Yue, and Carl Leban, however, demonstrate
that Chen was simply stating the facts about the poor condition of Shu's records
(St, 7.9a, 11.7b; Sgz jijie, 33.21b; Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 4, 14n; Leban,
"Ts'ao Ts'ao and the Rise of Wei," 12-14).
Miao, "Chen Shou yu San guo zhi," 321, suggests that the absence of the
treatises was due to insufficient data. Although this may well be true, Leban
suggests that a further reason for Chen's format is that at the time Chen wrote
Records of the Three States, the great histories of Sima Qian and Ban Gu
notwithstanding, "the forms of historical writing were still in a state of
experimental flux" (Leban, "Ts'ao Ts'ao and the Rise of Wei," 19-20). See
also Qian, "Zonglun Dong Han dao Sui de shixue yanjin." Many Qing dynasty
works attempt to supply zhi and biao for Records of the Three States. Such
works include those found in volumes 2 and 3 of Eswsbb.
Liu, Jiu Tang shu, 46.1989, 1992. See also Zhonghua shuju bianji bu, "San
guo zhi chuban shuoming," 2. Note that the Xin Tang shu [OMITTED] [New Tang
History] lists all three sections of Chen's work consecutively under the titles
Wei guo zhi, Shu guo zhi, and Wu guo zhi. Here mention of Pei's commentary
comes under the Wu guo zhi (Ouyang, Xin Tang shu, 58.1455).
Sui, 33.955. This entry also mentions a "Xu lu" [OMITTED] in one chapter, but this
has apparently been lost since Tang times (Zhonghua shuju bianji bu, "San
guo zhi chuban shuoming," 3; Sgz jiaogu, 5n). For additional, earlier evidence
that Records of the Three States was from the beginning one work, see Sgz
jiaogu, 298-300.
Zhonghua shuju bianji bu, "San guo zhi chuban shuoming," 2; Leban, "Ts'ao
Ts'ao and the Rise of Wei," 42. There are purported Eastern Jin (317-420)
manuscript fragments of San guo zhi. Two fragments of juan 57 were
unearthed between 1902 and 1904 at Tuyugou [OMITTED] in Xinjiang (Sgz jiaogu,
351; cf. de Crespigny, The Records of the Three Kingdoms, 28; Leban, "Ts'ao
Ts'ao and the Rise of Wei," 41; and Guo, "Xinjiang xin chutu de Jin ren xieben
San guo zhi can juan," 2, all of which give 1924 and simply Shanshan xian
[OMITTED] as the date and place of discovery). This manuscript has sometimes
been used as an illustration in various works, as in the first edition of the
Zhonghua shuju San guo zhi and, more recently, the San guo zhi cidian [OMITTED]
[OMITTED] (Sgz cidian). It was reproduced in the 1926 edition of Luo Zhenyu's
[OMITTED] (1866-1940) Han Jin shu ying [OMITTED] [Reproductions of Han
through Jin Manuscripts]. A photo reprint of the manuscript, with
contributions by Wang Shu'nan [OMITTED] (1851-1936), Luo Zhenyu, and Naitō
Torajirō [OMITTED] (Naitō Konan [OMITTED], 1866-1934), was published
in Japan in 1930 under the title Gu ben San guo zhi cancun san juan [OMITTED]
[OMITTED] (the title on the case is Gu ben San guo zhi can juan [OMITTED]
[OMITTED]). Doubts about the authenticity of this manuscript have been
expressed (see de Crespigny, The Records of the Three Kingdoms, 26-29, and
Leban, "Ts'ao Ts'ao and the Rise of Wei," 41-42; cf. Guo, "Xinjiang xin chutu
de Jin ren xieben San guo zhi can juan," 2). Two other Eastern Jin fragments
were discovered in Turfan (Tulufan [OMITTED]) in Xinjiang in 1965, and there
is one from Dunhuang [OMITTED] (Sgz jiaogu, 350-351; Guo, "Xinjiang xin chutu
de Jin ren xieben San guo zhi can juan").
Zhonghua shuju bianji bu, "San guo zhi chuban shuoming," 4. This Bona
edition is the one included in Sbck. Bona means something like "many
patches," "patchwork," or "pastiche." The title derives from the fact that the
series was pieced together from what were considered to be the best Song and
Yuan editions. The Bona ben histories were first published in installments
between 1930 and 1937 by the Commercial Press of Shanghai.
A set of dynastic histories was published by the Wuying dian, the imperial
printing office and bindery, during the Qianlong [OMITTED] era (1736-1796). This
edition is known as the Wuying dian, or Palace, edition of the histories. It has
been the basis for a number of other editions, including Ershisi shi [OMITTED]
[OMITTED] (Shanghai: Tongwen shuju, 1894); Ershiwu shi [OMITTED] (Shanghai:
Kaiming shudian, 1935); and Ershiwu shi (Taibei: Yiwen yinshu guan, 1956).
Zhonghua shuju bianji bu, "San guo zhi chuban shuoming," 4. Specifying it
as published by the Directorate of Education at Beijing (Bei jian [OMITTED]) suggests
that this Ming edition dates from 1421 or later, for it was in that year that
a Directorate of Education at Nanjing (Nan jian [OMITTED]) was established. See
Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, no. 3541.
Zhonghua shuju bianji bu, "San guo zhi chuban shuoming," 4. Feng Mengzhen
was chancellor of the Directorate and oversaw the production of new editions
of dynastic histories. See Goodrich and Fang, Dictionary of Ming Biography,
1:343, 2:1559.
Zhonghua shuju bianji bu, "San guo zhi chuban shuoming," 4. On Mao Jin's
activities as a bibliophile and publisher, see Hummel, Eminent Chinese of the
Ch'ing Period, 565-566. For a list of other editions of Records of the States,
see Sgz jiaogu, 350-351.
This biographical sketch of Pei Songzhi is based on Ss, 64.1698-1701, and
Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 15-16. Wenxi was in the area of the modern place
of the same name in Shanxi.
Those whose families had fled south to escape incursions of nomadic peoples
from the steppe maintained the fiction of being natives of their family's place
of origin in the North. See Crowell, "Northern Émigrés and the Problems of
Census Registration under the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties."
Sizhou was a province created by Liu Yu when he captured modern He'nan
from the Later Qin [OMITTED]. It eventually was occupied by the Later Wei [OMITTED].
Jiankang, of course, was at modern Nanjing. Lingling was a commandery with
its seat located at modern Lingling, Hunan.
Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 16. Pei Songzhi's designation as marquis is not
mentioned in his biographies in Shen Yue's [OMITTED] (441-513) Song shu [OMITTED]
[Song History] and Li Yanshou's [OMITTED] (fl. 629) Nan shi [OMITTED] [History of
the South], but Marquis of Xi District is one of the titles he uses in signing
his "Memorial Presenting the Commentary to Records of the Three States."
See Sgz, 1472.
See Sgz, 1.14, 16.489. See also Crowell, "Government Land Policies and
Systems in Early Imperial China," 144-171; Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 2021.
Only 60 to 70 percent of the works quoted by Pei are listed in the
bibliographical treatise of the Sui History. Less than 10 percent appear to have
survived as independent works past the Song (Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 15).
Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 15. Miao cites Yang Yixiang [OMITTED], who says
there are on the order of 200,000 graphs in the text itself and around 540,000
in the commentary (Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 30). This is wildly inaccurate.
The notion that Pei's commentary is longer goes back to Chao Gongwu's [OMITTED]
[OMITTED] (fl. 1151) Junzhai dushu zhi [OMITTED] [Notices on Books from the
Prefect's Studio]. See Chao, Junzhai dushu zhi, 5.4b. For a more reliable count,
see Appendix II.
Miao Yue (San guo zhi daodu, 17) observes that glossarial commentary
comprises quite a bit of the total. But it is not much in evidence in the sections
translated here. For a list of some examples of this type of note, see Miao,
San guo zhi daodu, 18-19. Our impression is that Pei's glossarial and
explanatory notes make up a relatively small percentage of the commentary.
Wu Jinhua [OMITTED] suggests that this is because Pei and his readers were not
that far removed from Chen's period and thus had less trouble with his
language (Wu Jinhua, "Qianyan" [OMITTED] ["Foreword"], 1, in Sgz jiaogu). The
spotty nature of such notes led the editors of the Siku quanshu zongmu [OMITTED]
[OMITTED] [General Bibliography of the Complete Writings of the Four
Treasuries] to speculate that Pei may have set out to write a work similar to
Ying Shao's [OMITTED] (d. ca. A.D. 204) commentary to the Han History. Unable
to complete it, he was loath to take out the glossarial and explanatory notes
and simply left them (Skqszm, 45.17-18). Miao argues that this is needless
conjecture and clearly believes that it detracts from Pei's very real
accomplishments (Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 17).
Js, 82.2137. See also Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 5; de Crespigny, The Records
of the Three Kingdoms, 12-13.
Js, 82.2137-2138. See also de Crespigny, The Records of the Three Kingdoms,
12; Miao, "Chen Shou yu San guo zhi," 316. Despite his stature in popular
lore, Zhuge Liang has not escaped criticism by famous figures in Chinese
history. For example, he is taken to task by the later Sichuan native Su Shi
[OMITTED] (1036-1101) in his "Zhuge Liang lun" [OMITTED] [On Zhuge Liang].
See Kong, Su Shi wen ji, 1:112-113; Tillman, "One Significant Rise in Chu-ko
Liang's Popularity," 6-9.
Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 7; Miao, "Chen Shou yu San guo zhi," 317. See
also Luo, Wei Jin Nanbeichao wenhua shi, 433. Cf. Leban, "Ts'ao Ts'ao and
the Rise of Wei," 21-22.
See Miao, San guo zhi daodu, 5-11; Miao, "Chen Shou yu San guo zhi," 316320;
de Crespigny, The Records of the Three Kingdoms, 7-14; Leban, "Ts'ao
and the Rise of Wei," 19-29.
Skqszm, 45.17. Cf. Leban, "Ts'ao Ts'ao and the Rise of Wei," 24; Qian, "Fan
Ye Hou Han shu he Chen Shou San guo zhi."
It should be noted that elsewhere Chen does use the title Duke of Shanyang
to refer to Emperor Xian. See Fascicle 5.160 below, just before commentary
[I].
See Sgz, 4.128, 130-131; Zhao, Nianer shi zhaji, 8.96; Miao, San guo zhi
daodu, 9. On Cao Fang, see Chapter 2, note 70 and Fascicle 5 below, notes
31 and 84.
Sgz, 4.143, 144; Zhao, Nianer shi zhaji, 8.96-97; Miao, San guo zhi daodu,
9. On Cao Mao, see Fascicle 5 below, note 31.
On the lore surrounding Empress Zhen's death, see also Cutter, "The Death
of Empress Zhen." The present treatment attempts to account more fully for
the forces working on Chen Shou as he wrote his account.
See Fascicle 5 at commentary [I] below. It is quite possible that the encounter
occurred much as Yu Huan described it, for a surviving fragment of Cao Pi's
Dian lun [OMITTED] [Exemplary Essays], which has been preserved in Wei Zheng's
[OMITTED] (580-643) Qunshu zhiyao [OMITTED] [Essentials of Governing from
Divers Books], mentions his stay in Yuan Shao's house: "When the emperor
pacified Ji province and garrisoned Ye, I put up at Shao's mansion. I personally
strolled his courtyards, ascended his halls, roamed his pavilions, and lay down
in his rooms. The buildings had not yet collapsed and the stairs were intact"
(Wei, Qunshu zhiyao, 46.30b). See also Zhang, San Cao nianpu, 86. There
is a similar account in the Wei Jin shi yu [OMITTED] [Conversations of the Eras
of Wei and Jin], by Guo Ban [OMITTED] cited in Pei's commentary, Fascicle 5.160,
commentary [I].
Leban, "Ts'ao Ts'ao and the Rise of Wei," 15; Zhonghua shuju bianji bu, "San
guo zhi chuban shuoming," 1.
Jia Chong's wife's maiden name was Guo, and she was the niece of one of
Cao Cao's trusted supporters, Guo Huai. There is no evidence of a direct tie
to the family of Empress Guo, though the possibility cannot be ruled out. Liu
Zenggui apparently did not consider them to be related, since the table of the
lineage of Jia Chong's wife's family in Han dai hunyin zhidu, 239 shows no
link to Empress Guo.
Js, 39.1152, 40.1167-1168. The reason for Xun Xu's recommendation sheds
some light on the factionalism at court. Jia Chong, who was at the time prefect
of the masters of writing, had been ordered to the Northwest to deal with
rebellions of the Di [OMITTED] and Qiang [OMITTED], non-Chinese peoples active in the region.
This appointment was proposed by Palace Attendant (shizhong [OMITTED]) Ren Kai
[OMITTED], an "upright" official who greatly disliked Jia. Jia's confederate Xun saw
that if Jia were removed from the capital, their influence would decline. Xun
thus proposed that Jia's daughter be married to the heir apparent, and Xun's
father and the Empress Yang, who was apparently bribed, supported the idea.
The emperor agreed, and when a heavy snowfall prevented the army from
setting out, he ordered Jia to remain in his original posts (Js, 39.1153, 40.1167-1168).
Concerned by Jia Nanfeng's extreme jealousy, Emperor Wu wanted to remove
her as wife to the heir apparent. Empress Yang argued for retaining her (as
did Xun Xu), citing her father Jia Chong's contributions to the state. Empress
Yang did, however, chastise Jia Nanfeng, who, not being aware of Empress
Yang's support, hated her. When Emperor Wu died, the newly installed
Empress Jia resented the power held by Empress Dowager Yang's father, Yang
Jun [OMITTED] (d. 291), accused him of plotting a revolt, and fabricated a decree
to have him executed. When she then charged Empress Yang with complicity
in the plot, Zhang Hua rose to the latter's defense (Js, 31.955-956, 963). See
also Pease, "Kuo P'u's Life and Five-Colored Rhymes," 27 and Fascicle 5, note
94 below.
Later, however, Zhang Hua rose to high position through the auspices of
Empress Jia and served the state loyally under her direction. This shift cost
him his life when Sima Lun [OMITTED] (d. 301) overthrew Empress Jia in 300.
See de Crespigny, "The Three Kingdoms and Western Jin," 154-155, and
Fairbank, "Kingdom and Province in the Western Chin," 128-129. On
Zhang's relations with Empress Jia and the changes in his personality that led
to his willingness to serve her, see Straughair, Chang Hua, 3-11.
Ban Gu faced an analogous problem in writing about Emperor Ming's Empress
Ma, whose ancestors had been implicated in a plot to assassinate Emperor
Wu of the Former Han. See Bielenstein, "The Restoration of the Han Dynasty,"
4:122.
The correlation of events taking place at the Jin court and Chen's writing of
the different sections of Records of the Three States is impossible to determine
with any precision. The Wei section was surely written after Chen came to
Luoyang following the fall of Shu in 265, and it may have been put into final
form as late as after the conquest of Wu in 280, as is suggested by Chang
Qu [OMITTED] (Hygz, 11.849). See note 20 above. Given the charged atmosphere
at the Jin court, however, it probably would not have mattered if Chen's history
had been written before Jia Nanfeng was wed to the heir apparent. Xun Xu
and others would still have sensed an implied criticism in the text.
The Tang historiographer Liu Zhiji cited Wang Chen's "false recounting of
the decree dismissing [Empress] Zhen" as the first in his list of examples of
historians covering up or falsifying events for their own purposes (St, 7.94).
Liu gives Wei Chronicle (Wei lu [OMITTED]) rather than Wei History as the title
of Wang's work.
The phrase yin ai ti you [OMITTED] is translated here as "persons of distinction."
A ti you was an orange oilcloth fender or mudguard installed on a person's
carriage as a mark of virtue (Hs, 89.3629; HHs, zhi 29.3652-3653, Xue Zong's
[OMITTED] [d. 243] commentary). Since an yin is a carriage seat cushion (Sj,
122.3135-3136, Sima Zhen's [OMITTED] [fl. 745] commentary), the phrase seems
to mean "cushions thick and orange mudguards" as marks of distinction. The
phrase is, therefore, a metonymical usage referring to distinguished personages.
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