Female Rulers And Politics In Imperialistic China

In the political realm of imperialistic China in which the male occupied an absolute advantage position,the female rulers had ever acquired the "public","formal" political power to reign instead of the emperors and the governance legitimacy of a certain degree,and produced a profound influence on the political system,culture tradition and gender order of the entire empire.Since the main culture which affected mainly by Confucianism supported the patriarchy and patrilineal system,regarded highly to keep a particular cultural order and gender structure,and vindicated the emperor's "unitary reign principle",it had made the female rulers suffered tremendous challenges and restrictions when they tried to participate in political business.The appearance and prevalence of the "female disaster theory" was just the particular cultural outcome which tried to exclude the female rulers out of the political realm.However,the main culture tradition offered the female rulers some latent cultural resources while it restricted their activities,since it emphasized the essential value of the flourish of the patrilineal family. Meanwhile,the female rulers' identifying themselves as female,accepting actively women's responsibilities and recognizing their life end-results would locate in their husband's clan also influenced deeply how they acted and finished their political power,gave them a basal consciousness to support emperor's power,and consequently made them not invent the particular form of "female politics".The characteristics of the political system which affected by the emperor's "unitary reign principle" and "family-state" system had also objectively gave the female rulers the opportunities and guarantees when they participated in the political businesses.All of these factors made them acquire a certain degree legitimacy to act instead of the emperors as his "wife" or "mother":the emperor's emphasis of keeping his own power,the indivisible relationship between the emperor and the female ruler based on "yin-yang",the fuzzy boundary between the family business and the state business,the bureaucracy's total acceptance of the "family-state" system, and the main culture's worship to the filial piety,ect.The empress acquired the political power from the emperor because he regarded her as a useful "political assistant" which can helped him to confront the bureaucracy's "self-determination" and "independence",and also because he believed that she had absolute loyalty to himself,besides them,the empress could hardly get any other resources and guarantees to support her power.Therefore,the empress' political power was just "individual" and "unstable",only when she had a "friendly-marriage" and a close relationship with her husband,the emperor,and owned his trust all the time,she was able to keep her power.However,the bureaucracy's emphasis on themselves as the imperial's "public agent" would urge them to stick up to the empress when she tried to get into the political realm as the emperor's "private agent".Strictly abiding by the gender order was their main theory sources to oppose the empress to be concerned with polity.The empress dowagers acquired the political power and legitimacy essentially because of the characteristics of the "family-state" system and the internal blemish of the regality's hereditary principle.Different political parties' belief that she could be seen as the best "emperor's caretaker",the main culture tradition and the official ideology's worship to the "filial piety" also provided her a strong culture support to her govemance legitimacy.Therefore,the empress dowagers' governance legitimacy was "stable".But the emperor's "unitary reign principle" endowed her legitimacy with an unambiguous "transition" characteristic,so,she appeared mostly as "the head of the government",not "the chief of state", which the emperor was.The appearance of "monarchess" was a clear proof that the main culture tradition had the "lively flexibility",and also was a clear proof that the "Charism" could be the most important reason which made people obey her governance.Her political power was not stable at the beginning,but by using the terror and reconstructing the state ideology,she realized the conversion of legitimacy and established her authority.Essentially,brilliant political talent was the ultimate reason that made her keep the legitimacy finally.Therefore,her legitimacy was just "personal",only if she continued to prove that she could give people a rich and happy life which an eligible ruler should do,she could make them obey her governance and respect her as the "monarchess".She had acquired the throne by the mode of "gender conversion",however,her identifying with herself as a female,accepting her final end-result would be in her husband's clan made her end her life as the identity of" the widow of Lee's clan" through the "gender regress". Therefore,her appearance didn't change the female's historical position, contrarily,it deepened the main culture's prejudice to the female,and also reinforced its stability and continuity.