Study On Empresses Of Min Dynasty

The princesses of the seraglio refer to the wife and concubines of the emperors in Chinese Feudal Society. The regulations of marital relations in the Ancient Chinese Society were pursued as the monogamy with several concubines. In the imperial family-the special class "home country", the queen is the official wife, the others is concubines. Since the princesses have closed to the core of ruling class, the political upheavals caused by the princesses’interventions have always happened in Chinese history. Such as the Han and the Tang Dynasty, China had suffered the several turbulent periods caused by the interventions of the empresses and their consorts. Wu Shi of the Tang Dynasty, the Empress of Gaozong, had deposed her son Li Dan, Ruizong, and ascended herself the throne. The Tang Dynasty was replaced with a new one, her Zhou Dynasty. She became the only female Emperor in China. These behaviors have seriously affected the smooth operation of the imperial power and the social order. Therefore, the posterity has always tried to limit the princesses into the power. The Ming is a dynasty affirmed so much by the posterity, because of its avoidance from the empresses’dictatorship. In the "History of the Ming" amended officially by the Qing Dynasty, it appraised the princesses of the Ming as:"They resided in the imperial palace, no interventions at all. Their consorts have always obeyed the rules and kept their noses clean; they dared not to screw people with the power relatives. Since the Han and Tang Dynasty, no one can touch the Ming." Also because of the princesses of Ming didn’t really menaced the imperial power, few Chinese academics concerned about the empresses of Ming, our research is stay on the relatively low degree.In this dissertation, I take the empresses of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) as the research object. Through the cited references and the textual research to the empresses of Ming, we could research on the system of empresses, demonstrate the empresses’ palace life, summarize its characteristics and influence, try to impel the researcher to study the history of the empresses of Ming, the Ming Dynasty and the Chinese women. The main part of my dissertation is divided to five parts:The first part includes the overview of the empresses and its system before the Ming Dynasty. The second part includes the empresses’composition of the Ming Dynasty and researching their life. The research done by our predecessors has based on the empresses individual written in the "History of the Ming-biography of the princesses". But only45princesses as sample to research the whole empresses and their system of the Ming Dynasty is far from enough. So in this dissertation, I take all the empresses written in the official history as the research object, to expand the research scope, so that we can find many problems which the predecessors did not discover, and remedy the defects of previous studies. The third part includes the system of empresses of the Ming Dynasty and the fourth part includes their palace life. The fifth part includes the analysis of its characteristics and influence.On the basis of take the empresses of Ming Dynasty as a particular social group, my dissertation aims to research the empresses’biography and lifestyle of the Ming Dynasty, and analyze its system and influence, which makes the empresses’system research more specific, variability and dynamic. Empresses’ palace life was also constrained by ritual system and hierarchy, their clothes, food, shelter and travel respectively has its own limit and not trespass.In ancient China, the empresses were existed as the form of imperial families, so that their attribute was destined as the properties of imperial power. Certain empresses of the Ming Dynasty had received favor from the emperor, such as the Noble concubine Wan find favor in Emperor Xianzong’s eyes, such as the Noble concubine Zheng find favor with Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty, they had relied on imperial power, tried to collude with the eunuchs and outsides relatives, persecuted other concubines, intended replace the crown prince. At one time they had made the imperial seraglio an uncomfortable place. However, all of their misbehaviors cannot cover up the truth that the empresses were belong to the imperial power, and dominated by the imperial power all the time. After the Xianzong and Shenzong respectively died, the crimes of Wan Shi, Zheng Shi and their families were exposed and criticized soon. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor had limited the empresses’ power in the backyard, and achieved completely elimination of the empresses and consorts’ dictatorship. Even if the Empress Ma, who was one of the most virtuous queens of the Ming Dynasty, asked the Emperor:"All of our people have a stable life?" the Emperor Ming Taizu answered:"You shouldn’t mention this question, the state affairs disagreed with you!" That proves that though Ming Taizu admired the noble character of the Empress Ma, he had never allowed his wife to intervene in the political affairs. On the other hand, the abuse of discretion to the empresses’ power also may cause some disadvantages. The Emperor Ming Taizu and Chengzu freely slaughter the concubines and attendants. In the middle period of Ming Dynasty, there have been four Queens were disposed because of a little neglect. Under pressure of the imperial power, the empresses hadn’t dared to speak one word beyond the limit, and never touched the political affaires. In the period of the Emperors Wuzong, Shizong, Muzong, Shenzong, Guangzong and Xizong, the internal problems in the palace were happened frequently, but their queens could do nothing. The empresses should expostulate with the Emperor on his bad habits and restrain his behaviors, but the loss of these function directly led to a lot of major and serious criminal palace cases in the middle and late period of Ming Dynasty.