Research On The System In The Palace In The Northern Wei Dynasty

Harem system is not only the important part of the political system in Chinese ancient dynasties, but also an integral component of the study in imperial clan nobles. Harem system in North Wei Dynasty, it follow some of the provisions in Han and Jin harem system On one hand, On the other hand it has its own national characteristics, it also produces deep impact on Sui and Tang harem system. The harem system in Northern Wei Dynasty play a connecting role in the history of ancient in China.Northern Wei Dynasty was established in tribal basis, harem system was created after Emperor Daowu established the Northern Wei Dynasty, the generation of emperors are constantly improving it. The main clue in this paper is the evolution of harem system in different historical periods in Northern Wei Dynasty. Through the exposition of level, selection, car, clothes, funeral etc of concubines and female officials, Show concubines and female officers's living conditions, elaborate the similarity and difference of harem system in Central Plains and Northern Wei dynasty, and the reason which this situation causes. This paper is divided into six parts:The first chapter is the established of harem system in Northern Wei Dynasty, which is probably explain almost the full text, it's a brief description of the establishment and improvementof harem system in Northern Wei Dynasty. There isn't harem system before the Northern Wei Dynasty established, the true sense of the harem system was appeared after Emperor Daowu established the Northern Wei Dynasty, After that, the Emperor Mingyuan, Emperor Taiwu, Emperor Wencheng, Emperor Xiaowen, and Emperor Xianwen, Emperor Xiaoming all supplement and perfect the system, after the period of Emperor Xiaoming, the harem system was in the confusion with the political chaos. This section according the tchronological order focuses on the improvement of the early period (from Emperor Daowu to Emperor Xianwen), the middle period (Emperor Xiaowen) and the late period(from Emperor Xuanwu to Emperor Xiaowu) in Northern Wei Dynasty, to describe the difference of level, selection, car, funeral, clothes and the official System, and show the political, economic and cultural development of the Northern Wei affect the harem system.The second chapter is the disscussion about grade system of harem in Northern Wei Dynasty. This section divided the people in temple into four grades, including:queens, concubines, and female officers. Through interpretation of the difference stages of their rank, status, destination and so on, explain different levels, status have the influence of their fate. Queen is the highest status of concubines, it appeared after the Emperor Daowu established the harem system in Northern Wei Dynasty, after the emperor's death, more of them can be canonized Empress Dowager by new Emperor, they can continue their excellent life in palace. Level of concubines constantly improved with the political development of Northern Wei Dynasty. The period of Emperor Xiaowen with the implementation of Chinese localization, the level of concubines finally determined. Concubines has a higher status in the harem, After emperor's death, some of them became toffee and leave the palace, some of them still live in the palace untile died, some of them died due to their son was elected to be prince. The female officers system was established in Emperor XiaoWen period, they are the service officials in palaces. The female officers are divided into two types, one is the women selected in imperial and relatives family, though they are female officers, but they can have a normal family life; the other is selected from maid in palace, These female officers can't live palace all their life, but they have more chance to contact with the emperor, they can obtained reward of the rulers after their death. Maid in palace is a group of people who are at the bottom of the palace, some of them were released when they were old or lack of skills, Whether in or out of the palace, their life are all very difficult.The third chapter is the discussion about selection system of harem in Northern Wei Dynasty. This part through the chronological order, discussed the selection of the early and middle and late North Wei Dynasty in queens, concubines, and female officers. In the queen's selection, in early period of North Wei Dynasty,the queen not only get emperor's approvement,but also through the production of golden pottrait, they don't pay close attention to the queen's background. Since Emperor XiaoWen period they pay close attention to the queen's background, they selected queen from relatives and powerfulminister family, through the production of golden pottrait to select queen disappeared. In concubines selection, in early period of Northern Wei Dynasty, concubines mainly coming from the period of the regime of the princess, the ruler also notice to select concubines from normal civilian family, since Emperor Xiaowen period, menFa literati of Han nationality become the main selection of concubines, few of them selected from normal civilian family. Through the improvement of selection, we can see the relationship between the harem system evolution and localization process, In the female officers selection, Female officers are selected from among the maid in palace, who have certain culture or special skills, but also from select female privy counselor from relatives and imperial family, to show favour of these families or female officers personalities.The fourth chapter is the discussesion on car and clothes system of harem in Northern Wei Dynasty. This part through the different historical period, explain the car, clothing, jewelry of the queen, concubines female officers, the maid in palace and so on, state the affection of level system on, queens, concubines, and female officers, and maid in palace. In car system of harem system, Based on empress dowager, queens, concubines three levels in how much, scale aspects of the cars, show their different status in palace. In clothes system of harem system, the queen has the mose clothes in palace, they wearing different clothes in different activities, concubines, female officers are only have one kind of dress, and different levels of concubines, female officers have different dress, through the harem dress changes we can be seen localization policies in use in people living in Northern Wei Dynasty. In seal and jade of harem system, the same as emperor, the empress have impress made of jade, wear shanxuan jade, it is the highest level in harem system. Concubines'seals and jades closely related withtheir status in harem, all of the concubines have seals, but only the level high of lesbian have jades. Only female privy counselor have seal and jade. In hair jewelry of harem system, the queens, concubines, and female officers'hair jewelry is basically the same, only the jewelry's material and number of floral twinkle are different, it is the performance of their status in harem.The fifth chapter is the discussion the funeral system of harem in Northern Wei Dynasty. The funeral system is one of the indispensable system of harem system, it's also a rating system of the harem. This chapter basically explain through three aspects of the burial system, complimentary system, posthumous name system. The queen have the highest burial level, not only can be buried with the emperor, but also can have larger specifications and regulate epitaphs tombstone. According to the concubines level in harem of their lifetime, determine the distance with the emperor mausoleum and the size of the epitaph tombstone, the standardized production of their epitaph tombstone decline. The burial of female officers, female privy counselor establish epitaphs by their family and buried with them after they were died, besides all of female officers above expanded buried in collective graveyard, and set up epitaphs by their level of lifetime, the epitaphs of female officers are smaller than concubines', and lack of standardization. In complimentary system, the concubines who were died because of their son was selected to be prince, can be gave queen state, some of concubines who were loved by emperor can be gave higher level grade in their own level, it don't have substantial effect on their epitaphs. Female officers have more chance to contacts with emperor, can be easily get the appreciation, most of them can get the promote after they were died, and improve the level and the scale of the funeral. In posthumous name, only queen and concubines can get posthumous name, most of queens can get posthumous name, existing the high posthumous name and middle posthumous name, few of concubines can get posthumous name, only existing the high posthumous name. so posthumous name system is the performance of level system in harem.The sixth chapter is the discussion on official system of harem in Northern Wei Dynasty. In this part, officers will be divided into the three parts:the officers in Empress Dowager's palace, the officers in Queen's palace and servicer for concubines' ife, explain election and control of these harem officers in Northern Wei Dynasty. Empress Dowager is the highest grade of women in harem, hence the emperor give special appointment of officials to service her life, this part of is main to illustrate the Weiwei and Taipu and their dependent in Chongxun palace where Empress dowager Ling live. Queen as the wife of the emperor, responsible for managing the harem, and control the concubines, Daichangqiu and his dependent are the officers service in Queen's palace and help queen manage the harem. The grade of concubines is lower than queen, but they are still the owner of harem, there are also some officers dedicated to serive for their lives, but rank and status of officers who serive for concubines' ive are lower than the palace officials of Empress dowager and the Queen's Palace, this is also the reflection of concubines' tatus in the harem.