A Study On The System Of The Crown Prince In Han Dynasty

In the traditional China, the system of crown prince that regarded as an important part of imperial politics has played critical role for consolidating authority of the emperor and maintaining authoritarian rule. In the field of ancient politics of China, crown system became an indispensable part. Generally, the Han dynasty is the crucial period for crown system which have a profound influence to the later generations. Based on above reasons, undoubtedly, we should study the crown prince system in Han dynasty comprehensively and meticulously.This thesis is divided into four parts.In the first chapter, we discussed the system of crown prince on the whole. The system of crown prince through the Han dynasty carried out cardinal principle which manifesting the primogeniture eldest son inherited the throne only. the lineal primogeniture system had been determined as early as west Zhou period. With the decline of the Zhou Dynasty and the society changes drastically in the spring and autumn and the Warring States Period, the system had not work, however, some thought related to the system had been deeply rooted among the people. An obvious fact was that relative legal provisions were formulated in the Qin period which laid the foundation for the implementation of the relevant system in the Han Dynasty. In traditional China, the idea of succession to the throne that was expressed in Chun Qiu Gong Yang Zhuan that determining the oldest son instead of the most virtuous as the Dizi and determining the son according to their social status instead of age. The idea had been accepted between Han Dynasty and the royal practice it as basic principle. Furthermore, it is critical spirit that the princes whether or not inherit the throne depended their age and their mother's status. Qualification of the throne inheritance only focused on the only individual, in order to ensure stable inheritance within the throne in the imperial family. However, the system of crown prince couldn't perform effectively, due to various facts such as the queen no children, the emperor's preference and the consorts controlling power arbitrarily. On the whole Han dynasty, it had established 20 crowns, but only 8 were Dizi, 40% of the total. This may explain the lack of the inheritance system. Hence, the Han government designed some complementary measures. Firstly, if the queen have no children, establishing the illegitimate as heir follow the sequence according to the status and age. What's more, if the emperor childless thoroughly, the heir have been chosen from the vassals could be called Zongfan Ruji according to their genetic condition, ethic relationship, morality and political talent. In this way, the Han royal family practiced relatively complete system of throne inheritance. We also considerate some events for the abolition to the crowns which happed accidently, we should not see it as institutionalized behavior. In a sense, the abolition could be seem as the prerequisite for having title a new heir. Talking about the crown system, it also cannot be ignored. Considering the crown was been abolished, the reasons usually were various. Crown's mother lost the favor of the emperor, the crown have no ability and the crown was framed by the powerful minister. At the end, the crown's abolish actually were the results of political struggle. In the age of absolutism that based on rule of man, the abolition is inevitable outcome.The second chapter focus on the etiquette system relative to the crown, such as title-conferring ceremony, coming-of-age ceremony, funeral, hajj ritual, social norms and honor guard. The title-conferring ceremony consisted of title-conferring crown prince and worship in the royal ancestral temple. The ritual of title-conferring crown prince were many rules in detail, such as ministers attended the ceremony, ceremonial officers standing position, title-conferring,awarding the seal and ribbon to crown, the crown chengchen, the emperor issued edict and issued reward order, and so on. After that, the crown should worship in the royal ancestral temple, so that he could be recognized by the ancestors. When the prince entered into the temple, the officers Taizi-Mendafu and Taizi-xianma were followed. Worship in the royal ancestral temple was solemn, when the ritual held, the government selected person involved into the ritual strictly. Besides, the government set strict rules relative to the officials' dress, time and music and dance need to performance. About the coming-of-age ceremony, we have got some conclusion. Generally, the ceremony held in Chun Zheng yue. However, the age of the crown had no fixed standard, due to the ceremony associated with political circumstances usually. After the ceremony, the government must get a rewards to let all people participate in the celebration. The emperor's death was known as great mourning which also was the national event. At this moment, the crown prince must perform the funeral etiquette to express his filial piety with a double identity as a son and secretary. Meanwhile, to the crown prince, the funeral contained the inheritance of the highest power that marked his identity change from the crown to the emperor. Overall, the process included three part: the funeral etiquette, the ritual to become the Tianzi and the ritual to become the emperor. The crown should perform hajj ritual to show his honor and virtue. According to the regulation, the crown met the emperor once every five days accompanied by Taizi-Taifu and Taizi-Shaofu. When he himself didn't meet the emperor, he could let the Taizi-Pu and Taizi-Zhongyun replace himself to greet to the emperor and Empress. The emperor of the Han dynasty were very clear that the crown who should be the successor of the highest power is the potential threat to the throne, when the emperor cultivated the crown to be the successor, he also consciously control the scope of the crown's power, he must guard against the potential dangers from the crown. There was an important rule that the crown should not contact with the outside world. Progressively, the crown should not contact with the governors, the ministers and the guests privately. The purpose was limited the crown's political action, due to he may make transgression behavior which caused the political unrest. nevertheless, the crown contacted with the outside political persons within the permission of the policy, the emperor allowed him to do so, even encouraged. Last, we considered the honor guard which was a symbol of identity and authority of the crown prince. The system of honor guard could be seemed to consisted of three parts, the organizational structure of the guard of honor, the vehicle ride by the crown and the etiquette rules for travelling. We believed that the honor guard reflectsed the secure society hierarchy in Han dynasty.In the third chapter, we studied the attached officials of the crown prince. In general, the attached officials of the crown prince in Han dynasty based on the Shi-Fu-Bao officials in the pre-Qin period institutionally, however, the Han government made a lot of adjustment in accordance with their own needs. The government increased many officials, formed a relatively complete bureaucratic system. It should be pointed out that there are difference between the Western Han and the Eastern Han. In the Western Han dynasty, the attached officials were led by the senior mentor of the heir apparent, the junior mentor of the heir apparent and the vice supervisor of the household apparent, both the former two officials and the last official were mutually independent of each other. The former two officials were mainly responsible for teaching the crown prince, the last one mainly managed the daily affairs in the crown prince's home. In Eastern Han dynasty, the government reformed the crown prince's attached officials, the vice supervisor of the household apparent was be removed. At the same time, the senior mentor of the heir apparent was responsible for teaching the crown prince like a teacher, the junior mentor of the heir apparent became the leader of the attached officials. Besides, the government reformed the attached officials modeled the Jiuqing system of the government.Secondly, according to the time order, the thesis discussed the selection standard, responsibility, class rank, status and subordinate relation to the attached officials of the crown prince in different periods. The senior mentor of the heir apparent and the junior mentor of the heir apparent were the important officials to the crown prince, they must educate the crown prince for cultural level and political ability, protect and assist the crown prince in politics. However, the selected standard, status, class rank and responsibility were different between the Western Han and the Eastern Han. It was obvious that the Rulers and the whole society's attitude toward education and importance are very different. In the Western Han, the senior mentor of the heir apparent, the junior mentor of the heir apparent and the vice supervisor of the household apparent were two thousand dan rank that below the rank of Jiuqing. After in the Eastern Han, it was different that the rank and responsibility had changed between the senior mentor of the heir apparent, the junior mentor of the heir apparent. The rank of the senior mentor of the heir apparent climbed to zhong two thousand dan the same as the Jiuqing while the rank of the junior mentor of the heir apparent were still remained the original level. The crown prince should regard himself as pupil in front of the two mentors, correspondingly, the junior mentor of the heir apparent should claimed himself as Chen but the senior mentor need not. In their responsibility, the senior mentor had no longer at the head of the attached officials, only responsible for teaching the crown prince, when while, the junior mentor became the head. In the West Han, the responsibility that the vice supervisor of the household apparent undertook were three parts: ensuring the safety of the crown prince and his domicile, responsible for the daily supply and financial management of the prince, leading part attached officials such as coach man of the heir apparent, director of the watches in the household of the heir apparent. The vice supervisor and the two mentor consisted of the leading system of the attached officials of the crown prince. The rank of the vice supervisor was two thousand dan in Western Han, however, the official was cancelled in Eastern Han. To the system of the attached officials, officals in the one thousand dan rank were the chamberlains of the heir apparent such as a collective reference to the household provisioner and the coach man of the heir apparent that were led to the vice supervisor in Western Han then led to the junior mentor in Eastern Han. The officials under the one thousand dan rank were Tai-Zi-Men-Da-Fu, Tai-Zi-Shu-Zi, Tai-Zi-Zhong-Shu-Zi,Tai-Zi-She-Ren and Tai-Zi-Xian-Ma that led to the two mentors in Western Han, Tai-Zi-Wei-Shuai, Tai-Zi-Jiu-Zhang led to the vice supervisor. In the Eastern Han, the Tai-Zi-Men-Da-Fu was cancelled, the rank of Tai-Zi-Wei-Shuai relegated to four hundred dan, the other officials had on change in rank and responsibility.The forth chapter concentrated on the education to the crown prince in Han dynasty. The discussion consisted of teachers disposition, education context, educational method and expositor system. Education of crown prince was great event related to the political stability and national foundation continued forever, so that, it was a specifically, complicated and systematic project. In order to train the crown prince to be a qualified successor to the throne, as early as the Han dynasty set up, the first emperor Liubang created a education system for teaching the crown prince followed the Shi-Fu-Bao system in Pre-Qin period. The system took the two mentors of the heir apparent as the main body, the main function was responsible for teaching and counseling the crown comprehensively. Even so, it could not finish the task only relied on the power of the two mentors, thus, some officials also responsible for teaching the crown prince, the actually became the teachers. The thesis analyzed this problem particularly. When choose the additional post to teach cultural knowledge to the crown prince, the government selected the best person in all the country. In this way, the additional post officials usually took up difference in status and identity, they also have no fixed rank. Compared with the two mentors, they were choose more flexible. In addition to the cultural officials knowledgeable and familiar with classics, there were other people who selected from consorts or eunuch trusted by the emperor also could assisted the crown prince. The officials who as the teachers as the same time have not the birthright, but were the indispensible mentors actually.They have been respected by the crown prince and the emperor, although they need to claim to be detained in front of the crown prince. What's more, those officials took advantage in promotion and reward. In addition to those additional post, the emperor also cultivated the crown being as a ruler and administrational practice through various ways, it was obvious that the government formed a large teachers staff around the education and cultivation of the crown prince. The government often adjusted the educational context according to the political require, the context were times. In early Western Han dynasty, the thought of Huanglao were the ideology, so it became the main context teaching to the crown prince. From the period emperor Wu on, Confucianism instead of the thought of Huanglao, have been the doctrine of the national rule, the Confucian Five Classics became the main content the crown prince must learn. In addition to cultural education, the crown prince still need to accept the so-called monarchical politics which contained comprehend and rational usage to the courtiers, also included the method of controlling the courtiers. The crown prince also need to learn cultivating their filial piety and virtue. The purpose was let the crown prince have been a knowledge and virtue successor, more important, the crown prince should has good administrational ability. As early as the beginning of the Eastern Han period, the emperor Guwangwu performed the education, he adopted the expositor system which result of the selected and teaching system in emperor Wu period. It was the expositor system that the emperor choose the courtiers familiar with the Confucian classics to teach the crown prince according to the emperor or the crown prince learning need. Compared with the Shi-Fu system, the expositor system was more mature. The expositor system straighten out the relations between the educator and the educate. In the other hand, the system solved the problem that the young man succeeded the throne or the local vassals inherited the throne after the emperor Zhang.