Research On "Guan Long Group" From The Perspective Of Imperial Politics

This dissertation takes Guan Long Group as the research object, Dynamically investigating it in the history of imperial Political evolution of a long timescale which is from the Western Wei Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties.The rule core of the state of Guan Long is some persons who are called as "beizhen forces ". They were excluded from the ruling class since Northern Wei Emperor Xiaowen’s Reform, and their social identities were gradually untouchable. Therefore, they would not continue to follow the system of hereditary aristocracy established by Northern Wei Emperor Xiaowen when they were in power. The state of Western Wei Dynasty was inferior to the others whether in material or spiritual aspect. In order to turn around, Yuwen Tai must seek a new pathway which was called as the policy of Guanzhong Departmentalism by Chen Yinque so that he can unite with Xianbei of six castles and other natives in the region of Guan Long. The community was so-called" the group of Guan Long ". The top people of this group were so-called eight columns, and these columns take up the positions of six qing after the institution of six guan had been established. Nevertheless, the emperor of the Western Wei Dynasty still existed, therefore, the state of the Western Wei Dynasty showed a kind of double political state.Yuwen Hu completed the revolution between Wei and Zhou after Yuwen Tai was dead. He acquired the military imperia of 24 armies under his Zhongwaifu and obtained executive power under his Tianguanfu after he had defeated aristocrats. Afterwards, Northern Zhou Emperor Wu took over the the military imperia and executive power after he killed Yuwen Hu. Around the same time, the emperor granted his courtiers once lofty ranks such as column and general. What’s more, he created some new ranks such as great column and great general so that an increasing number of officials had lofty ranks. Old aristocrats’ privileges were being challenged. Meanwhile, the monarchic dictatorship was nascent. After that, Northern Zhou Emperor Xuan expanded the executive power of Yuzheng and Neishi so as to reinforce imperatorial power. Finally, Yang Jian successfully completed the revolution, relying on Northern Zhou Emperor Xuan’s Yuzheng and Neishi’s assistance, which was the inevitable result of the strengthening of autocratic imperial power and the decline of aristocratic force.Sui Emperor Wen suppressed old aristocrats of the Northern Zhou Dynasty after the Sui Dynasty had been founded. Then Sui Emperor Wen promoted princes, imperial clan and political upstarts. So aristocratic stratum of Guan Long generated significantly metastasis. Guan Long aristocrats’ political controlling force declined to the pole and gradually degenerated to parasitic bureaucrats of the autocratic empire even though they still enjoyed some privileges during the period of the Sui Dynasty. What’s more, they lose the privilege of hereditary official during the reign of Sui Emperor Yang.Li yuan founded the Tang Dynasty relying on a new military group rather than Guan Long aristocrats of the former dynasties. After detailedly investigating into the number and family background of the meritorious statesmen and prime ministers from Wude to Zhenguan, we can find that the members of Guan Long Group had gradually faded, most important of all, the number of Guan Long aristocrats was few, and none was eight columns’offspring excluding Li royal. Although several Guan Long persons received preferential treatment and accepted high official vocations from new dominator because of support the Tang Dynasty or marry with royal, their power and influence hadn’t compared with imperial power. And they had degenerated into emperor’s dependency and become autocratic empire’s parasitic bureaucrats.Zhangsun Wuji used to be regarded as a typical character among Guan Long’s aristocrats in the period of Tang gao-zong. However, based on the research about his family, I think Zhangsun Wuji had no deep relationship with Guan Long’s aristocrats, even he suffered from a bitter experience that he was expeled by his stepbrother. Zhangsun Wuji shouldn’t be regarded as typical character among Guan Long’s aristocrats because many Guan Long’s aristocrats were killed by him. Furthermore, we don’t see out conspicuous regional bias from Zhangsun Wuji’s group’s members’ native place. However, Yu Zhining, a descendant of Guan Long’s aristocrat, maintained a neutral attitude in the incident of deposing queen and didn’t stand with Zhangsun Wuji on the united front. Therefore, it is not appropriate to consider the incident of deposing queen as regional conflict,and the essence of the incident should be conflict between despotic emperor and old aristocrats. Old aristocrats’ power comes from deceased emperor rather than themselves, so this is also a part of imperial politics.