A Historical Investigation Of The Post-Western System Of The Western Han Dynasty

Empresses culture is an important part of ancient Chinese feudal culture. On the background of the political constitution which families and country are integrated in ancient China, the combination of the emperors and empresses is particularly important. It not only determines the fate of a family, but also affects the historical trend of the feudal dynasty to a large extent. The fate of every dynasty not just depends on the emperor, but relates to the empresses. Empresses are restricted by the politics while deeply influence the politics. As the attractive dynasty in Chinese history, the Western Han Dynasty inherits the past and ushers in the future. A variety of institutional innovation lays a foundation for the later feudal dynasty cultural pattern. In the process of the development of the Western Han Dynasty, the empresses participate in the state affairs during almost every emperor's time. Behind many historical events, we can see the visible figures of the Western Han Dynasty empresses. For the research of them, it can provide a new angle of view which makes us understand the Western Han Dynasty society deeply and reveal the essence of China's feudal culture more profoundly.This thesis will take the imperial empress together with the concubines in the West Han Dynasty as the research object. On the basis of the previous studies and the exploration of some historical documents, the author conducts an analysis on those women who live in the Palace of West Han and hopes to offer some sparkling ideas to the study of the empress as well as concubines in West Han dynasty.This thesis can be classified into four parts.The first part gives a brief introduction to the empress system in the West Han Dynasty, and the origins of this system in Pre-Qin period together with the development of empress system in Qin dynasty are also explored.The second part consists of five sections. The first section pays special attentions to the three stages, which form the hierarchy of the empress and imperial concubines in the West Han Dynasty. The second section depicts the official system which serves for the empress dowagers, empresses and the concubines. The third section describes the system of taking concubines in the West Han Dynasty. The forth section introduces the education background of the empress as well as the imperial concubines in the West Han Dynasty, and the background includes the contents of education and the achievements they attain in the process of studying. The fifth section portrays the fertility of those imperial concubines as well as the empress in the West Han Dynasty.The third part illustrates the political participation of the empress together with the imperial concubines in the West Han Dynasty. The author carries on key research to the background of political participation, the facts of political participation and the measures that can be utilized to prevent those imperial women from participating in the political issues.The fourth parts explores the four kinds of fates of the imperial women in the West Han Dynasty.Through conducting a detail analysis on the various factors of those empresses and imperial concubines in the West Han Dynasty, this thesis intends to reproduce the image and status of those significant women for they play a very important role in the development of the West Han Dynasty.