Song Dynasty Crown Prince System

The crown prince system is an important component of the emperor system. It was established and gradually developed with the generation and development of the emperor system. The crown prince system of ancient China was the combined, then systematized product of the throne ?inheritance system (in Xia and Shang Dynasty)and patriarchal clan system (in Western Zhou Dynasty). It lasted for more than two thousand years from the Western Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty with an important characteristic that the eldest son born of the official wife of the emperor -would succeed to the throne firstly, and meanwhile other mu-taiton exist.Oweing to the fact that the crown prince was the coming emperor, the foundation of the nation, there had been various kinds of contradiction and confliction with the throne since the crown prince system had come into being.After the establishment of the Song Dynasty, for some special reasons, many flexible policies were employed in selecting the crown prince. Most emperors selected their crown princes. The emperors of the Song Dynasty put much stress on the education of the crown princes, and the crown princes of the Song Dynasty were possessed of a higher level of the cultural education. The emperors>empresses and imperial concubines^ officials^ eunuches and the common people produced distinct effects in selecting and crowning the crown princes. On the whole, the confliction about selecting and crowing the crown princes in the Song Dynasty was comparatively moderate. In the Song Dynasty, it was late that the crown princes were crowned and it was rare that the eldest sons born of the legal wives of the emperors were crowned. Most officials of the crown princes' held concurrent posts; the crown princes had no force; the crown princes of the Song Dynasty had an advanced cultural level. They were the characteristics of the crown prince system in the Song Dynasty.