The Research On Courtiers In The North Wei Dynasty

When speaking of the word "courtiers", we think of nobodies with grace bestowed by the emperor or the empress. There are different standards during different periods as to the question of what kinds of nobodies could be called "courtiers". The system of hereditary aristocracy pervaded in the North Wei Dynasty. Sometimes the empress took power. Therefore the word "courtiers" in the North Wei Dynasty has its own unique features. For the scope of "courtiers", I take those of History of Wei Dynasty:biographies of courtiers as the objects of the study, and regard the statement of the author Wei Shou as the basis of categorization of "courtiers". I analyze their family grounds and characteristics of their behavior one by one, thus summarizing the standards of categorization of "courtiers" by Wei Shou as well as that of the North Wei Dynasty. On the basis of the standards of categorization, I demonstrate the standards from the other side through analyzing the characters similar to "courtiers" with biographies in the History of Wei Dynasty, but not included in biographies of courtiers.Eunuch officers were closely related to "courtiers". Wei Shou wrote biographies for them separately in his book History of Wei Dynasty as biographies of courtiers and biographies of eunuchs. But Li Yan Shou put them both in the categorization of biographies of courtiers. The differences in categorizing them two concern the writing of history. Because of the development rule of inheritance and innovation in history writing, I will compare the writing of "courtiers" and eunuchs of Wei Shou with that of Ban Ma and Fan Ye, so as to explore the evolvement of history writing of the two kinds of people among different historians. By doing so, I will analyze time features of standards then adopted by Wei Shou and his subjective attitude towards "courtiers" and eunuchs, which is the important reason why Wei Shou put them separately. As for why eunuchs were not put in the biographies of courtiers, besides the subjective opinion of Wei Shou, I can find the reasons from their origins, process of development and their relationship with the people in authority. Finally, I summarize the reason why eunuchs were not put in biographies of courtiers with the opinion of Wei Shou and the objective reasons mentioned above.In addition to profound exploration and argumentation of the question, that is to say, what kind of people "courtiers" refer to, this article carries on the study of "courtiers" themselves, namely, their political actions, financial conditions, delight of life, social status and their destinies. Thus we can know comprehensively about "courtiers" in North Wei Dynasty.