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Xianbei and the Northern Dynasties. Barfield, Thomas, The Perilous Frontier, ” Ch. 3, “ The collapse of Central Order, ” pp. 104-130.
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Xianbei and the Northern Dynasties • Barfield, Thomas, The Perilous Frontier,”Ch. 3, “The collapse of Central Order,” pp. 104-130. • “Family, Marriage and Political Power in Sixth Century China: A Study of the Kao Family of the Northern Ch’i, c.520-550”, in Holmgren, Jennifer, Marriage, Kinship and Power in Northern China. pp VI, 1-50. OR: • “Politics of the Inner Court under the Hou-chu (Last Lord of the Northern Ch’i, c.. 565-73” in Dien, Albert E., ed., State and society in early medieval China, pp 269-330.
The Xianbei and the Northern Dynasties • Introduction • The Rise of the Tuoba • Marriage System: • Alliances • Policy • Naming of Empresses • Separation of wife’s Biological and Political Roles • Marriages of the Imperial Clan • The Tuoba and the Rouran • The Sinicization of the Tuoba • The End of the Northern Wei
The Xianbei and the Northern Dynasties (2) • The Northern Qi • Succession Problems • The end of Northern Qi • The Northern Zhou • The Regency of Yuwen Hu • The End of the Northern Zhou • Reference • Lady Chang • Empress Dowager Feng • Empress Dowager Ling
Introduction • The history of this period is referred to as the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589) – 169 years: • The Northern dynasties are the following: • The Northern Wei (386-534) – 148 years • Eastern Wei (534-550) – 16 years • Western Wei (535-556) – 21 year • The Northern Qi (550-557) – 7 years • The Northern Zhou (557-581) – 24 years • The Southern dynasties are: • Liu-Song (420-479) • Southern Qi (479-502) • Southern Liang (502-557) • Chen (557-589)
Introduction (2) By the time the Northern Wei conquered northern China in 410, China had been divided since the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 (not counting the brief 51 year reign of the Western Jin when the emperor was never able to completely centralize his power). By then China had been fragmented for about over 230 years. 5
Introduction (3) The reunification of Northern China was the work of different tribes of the Xianbei. First, the Murong had developed a dual administration system which was given time to mature and be usable for a non-Han group to govern a majority Han population. The Tuoba, the most nomadic and the least sophisticated of the Xianbei unified Northern China under the Northern Wei and governed it for 148 years years. 6 2014/8/22
Introduction (4) • Daoism was adopted as the official religion. • Many antiques and art works have survived as the N. Wei was heavily involved in funding the arts. • Near the end of the dynasty, The Tuoba, under emperor Xiaowen (467–499), and his regent, Empress Dowager Feng (of Chinese ancestry) tried to synicize. • The imperial family took the name of Yuan 元 and required other non-Hans to take Han names. • It moved the capital from the frontiers to Luoyang. • The N. Wei ended when the emperor, resenting the power of the regent, Empress Dowager Ling (also of Chinese ancestry), called on an outside nomadic power for assistance.
The Rise of the Tuoba • The early Xianbei Tuoba 拓跋 kingdom was called Dai, after the Chinese district of that name. • It was only a poorly organized confederation and was not recognized as one of the the 16 kingdoms. • For most of this period the Tuoba paid allegiance to their more powerful neighbors or fled into the mountains when attacked. • After the breakup of the Xiongnu Empire, the Tuoba began to conquer all of the steppe peoples until they were defeated by the Former Qin. • After the breakdown of the Former Qin, Tuoba Gui 拓跋圭(r.386-409) became Prince of Dai; 3 months later his title was changed to Prince of Wei of the new state of N. Wei.
The Rise of the Tuoba (2) • By 410, 14 years after Tuoba Gui declared himself emperor of a new Wei dynasty he controlled the entire northeastern region of China and southern Manchuria. • He adopted the Yan Kingdom’s pattern of government by dual administration by allowing: • The Xianbei tribes to retain their old benefits. • The tribal confederacy and tribesmen were registered as subjects of the state and organized as military units. • The tribes were given land and forced to settle on it, acting as garrison communities and nomadism was prohibited. • The Chinese ran the civil service bureaucracy and so began to gain influence.
Marriage System: Alliances • When Tuoba Gui began to build his state, strategic marriages were used to win the loyalties of influential clans, particularly those of the conquered ruling houses. • The Tuoba intermarried with other Xianbei clans and with prestigious lines of Xiongnu rulers; these marriage ties were accompanied by the granting of feudal titles to members of the consort clans. • After the defeat of the Later Yan, Tuoba Gui took the daughter of the last emperor, Murong Bao, as his consort. • He also took a consort from the Duan clan (the long-time consort clan of the Murong). • Tuoba Gui took as wife the sister of a leader of the Xiongnu clan and named their child as his successor.
Marriage System: Alliances (2) • Tuoba Si, the second emperor had two Murong wives. • Tuoba Si also took the daughter of the Later Qin emperor, Yao Xing, as consort. • Tuoba Tao, the third ruler, conquered Da Xie in 431 and took the daughter of the ruler as his consort. • Tuoba Tao’s heir, Tuoba Huang, had a Murong wife.. • The daughters of the Da Xie ruling house were given to other Tuoba leaders in marriage: • One was married to Tuoba Jun (r.452-465), Tuoba Tao’s grandson (fifth emperor of the Northern Wei). • Tuoba Jun also took, as wife, the granddaughter of the last emperor of the Northern Yan – Empress Dowager Feng.
Marriage System: Alliances (3) • Empress Dowager Feng Wenming (442-490CE), from the Northern Yan, was the consort of Tuoba Jun; she ruled the Northern Wei as regent for both her son and her grandson, Tuoba Hong 弘 , the 7th emperor (r.471-499); the sinicization of the Northern Wei was carried out under her guidance. • Two of her nieces, also of the Feng house, were married to her grandson, Tuoba Hong. • Half of the Tuoba princesses — about 54 — were given in marriage to the different clans and the other half to the Chinese clans. • Empress Dowager Ling (r.515-520; 525-528) of the Chinese Hu clan was a concubine of Tuoba Ke (Shizong (r.499-515), the 8th emperor. She ruled as regent for her son Suzong (r.510-528).
Marriage System: Policy • The Tuoba 拓拔 adopted the Chinese principle of primogeniture but not succession by a son of the empress • There was no role for the senior widow. • The system protected the privileges of paternal kin by denying other groups access through marriage ties with the throne. • It emphasized the common interest of the throne and the princes to control the ambitions of Chinese and other non-Han families. • Imperial wives and concubines came from outside the ranks of the bureaucratic and military and discriminated against the ruler’s maternal kin in selection for high office. • Daughters of princesses and maternal cousins were not taken into the imperial harem.
Marriage System: Policy (2) • All empresses came from the royal families of recently conquered non-Chinese states. • The naming of an empress was used to capture the loyalty of recently conquered peoples. • Their appointments hastened the integration of subject populations into the Northern Wei empire. • They were symbolic figures representing the integration of their peoples into the Tuoba empire. • These women did not have influential relatives at court and were preferred as their families posed no threat to the authority of the Tuoba elite—ruler’s male agnates. • Appointment of an empress was considered politically dangerous and not necessary and so often no empress was named.
Marriage System: Naming of Empresses • Two of the six emperors in the 5th Century never named legal consorts. • None of Taizong’s wives were given the title of empress during their lifetimes. • Xianzu (r.465-471) never appointed an empress. • The third emperor, Shizu, did not name his first empress until he had been on the throne for 9 years. • Gaozu (r.471- ), the last ruler of the 5C waited 22 years after his enthronement to name his first empress.
Marriage System: Separation of Wife’s Biological and Political Roles • The Tuoba tried to separate the wife’s biological function of producing an heir from her political role. • Empresses who named were childless. • They did not act as titular or foster mothers to eldest sons. • Mothers of eldest sons were never named empress in their lifetimes. • Once an heir was named, the biological mother might be made to commit suicide. • Sons were given to captive or low ranked palace women to raise as foster mothers. • The separation of the woman’s biological and political roles was done to prevent women and their relatives from achieving power.
Marriage System: Separation of Wife’s Biological and Political Roles (2) • However, there was a danger that the foster mother would have influence over the future emperor and so become very powerful. • This happened in several cases especially with the Empress Dowager Feng Wenming who first served as regent for Emperor Xianwen. • When he came to power at the age of 13, she retired as regent and fostered Xianwen’s son. • Emperor Xianwen died in 476 – some say that Feng may have poisoned him – she became regent for Xianwen’s son, Emperor Xiaowen. • She later became the foster mother of Xianwen’s son as well. • Feng was able to hold power until her own death.
Marriage System:Marriages of the Imperial Clan • Marriage was not a political issue for the princes. • They were free to choose wives without permission of the throne. • Many branches of the house intermarried with commoner, even slaves — wives being chosen for reasons of love or physical beauty. • The wife’s social standing was of little importance. • Imperial princesses were given in marriage to leaders of refugee groups arriving in Northern Wei, from other states or to members of a select line of a non-Han lineage, to neutralize a potentially hostile group.
The Sinicization of the Tuoba Wei • In a dual administration system, the emperor was responsible for maintaining the balance between the Chinese and the tribal elites; any change between these two groups had a critical impact on the dynasty. • The balance changed when Empress Dowager Feng and her grandson, Tuoba Hong (拓跋弘) (Xiao Wendi, r.471-499), began to sinicize the Wei state. • The sinicization program gave greater power to the central government. • Before that, the great tribal clans had attracted large groups of dependent households who worked the land in exchange for protection against heavy taxation. • The Sincization program: • Reformed the officials’ salaries system (feng lu zhi 俸禄制), enacted (484).
The Sinicization of the Tuoba Wei (2) • Brought the local populations into manageable administrative units, one that had been used in China since the Qin-Han period and still exists today -- bao jia 保甲system. • Five families were to make up a neighborhood (lin 林粼) headed by an elder (粼长); five neighborhoods made up a precinct （黎）, headed by an elder （里长, five precincts made up a district，(li 里) headed by an elder（党长）. • This made it easier to impose and enforce tax collections and to enforce another program: • The Equitable Field System (均田制) (485).
The Sinicization of the Tuoba Wei (3) • Enactment of the Equitable Field System brought uncultivated government lands into the tax rolls by distributing allotments to those who could cultivate it. • Adult males were to receive 40 mou of open field (suitable for grain crops); adult females received 20 mou. • Slaves or owners of slaves were given equal allotments. • Allotments of cattle was also made -- 30 mou per head, up to four headsfor plowing the land. • In 494, the court moved to its new capital at Luoyang resulting in impoverishing many tribal clans which had supplied the capital -- the tribal hierarchy reacted strongly to this radical shift away from Tuoba traditions. • The move to Luoyang had changed the relationship of the frontier troops to the dynasty; previously they had been well supplied, their leaders had received favor at court, and the northern border had imperial attention.
The Sinicization of the Tuoba Wei (4) • After the move, the view of the frontier was that of a marginal region; tribal troops were regarded as politically unreliable. • Garrisons were cheated of their rations by corrupt officials who were assigned to frontier posts as a form of exile along with convicts sentenced to frontier service. • The Northern Wei policy of aggressive disruption of the Rouran, -- a group that they had been fighting with (20 clashes in first half of 5th century) – was replaced by a conservative approach of walled defenses and tributary benefits.
The Sinicization of the Tuoba Wei (5) • The court banned the wearing of tribal clothes (494) and the use of Xianbei language at court for young officials (495). • The tribal and Han elites were integrated into a single ranking system (495). • The Tuoba abandoned its surname replacing it with a Chinese one, Yuan (496), meaning origin. • In 496, the crown prince led a large number of Xianbei back to Pingcheng in defiance the reforms of his father who had staffed the government almost exclusively with Chinese and had tried to encourage intermarriage with Chinese elites.
The End of the N. Wei • The Northern Wei was finally defeated by a combination of forces led by the Erzhu clan of Jie origin and other groups. • The outbreak of rebellion -- against the N. Wei sinicization program -- enabled the Erzhu to extend their influence by conquering areas in the name of the N. Wei court at Luoyang. • The last N. Wei emperor, Suzong, asked Erzhu Rong to free him from the Chinese advisors of his mother (E.D. Ling). • On arrival, Erzhu Rong murdered the entire N. Wei court and over 2,000 officials and their families, mostly Chinese. • Power struggles between different factions continued, each putting up different puppets (see reference for more info.) • The final winners were Gao Huan who set up the Eastern Wei that became the Northern Qi and Yuwen Tai who set up the Western Wei which became the Northern Zhou.
The End of the N. Wei (6) • N. Wei was then divided into two states one under the Gao and the the Yuwen clans. • Eastern Wei, in the north-east, later became the Northern Qi, (550-577) in 550. • Northern Qi was eventually defeated by the Northern Zhou in 577 and north China was united under Northern Zhou dynasty. • Western Wei came the Northern Zhou, (557-581) in 557. • Northern Zhou eventually became the Sui dynasty which was to unite all of China.
The End of the N. Wei (7) • The end of the N. Wei showed that as a foreign dynasty became sinicized it left itself vulnerable both to unhappy tribal elements and to a Chinese elite which hates and fears the tribal leaders. • The tribal military felt betrayed when the dynasty: • Reduced its importance by promoting Chinese to the most powerful positions in court. • Reduced the economic and political benefits that had previously been taken for granted by the tribal leaders.
The Northern Qi (550-577) • The N. Wei was divided into E. Wei and Western Wei; each headed by puppet emperors from the Imperial Tuoba family. • Gao Huan was the puppet controller of the E. Wei and he had consolidated his power through marriage alliances. • In addition to intermarriage with the Tuoba royal family, for: • Gao Yang, he found a woman from the prestigious Li clan. • Gao Zhan, a Rouran woman and one from the Chinese Hu clan. • Gao Wei, the last ruler was married to the daughter of Hulu Guang, possibly of Turkic origin. • The marriages successfully secured Gao legitimacy but had little effect on the racial hatred between the Chinese and Xianbei families as well as within the Gao family. • Racial tension was a problem of major personal and political proportions which Gao Huan and his successor, Gao Yang, recognized but were powerless to deal with.
Gao Huan’s Rise Through Marriage • Gao Huan’s first wife, Lou, had given him the initial money to get started. • The Erzhu daughters gave him claim to the Erzhu forces and territories. • Marriage with the Tuoba gave him legitimacy to continue the rule of the Northern Wei. • Lady Li gave him some access to the Chinese official class. • Lady Cheng gave him contacts with clans who had held important posts during ED Ling’s rule. • Lady Feng gave him access to the Feng clan which had dominated the Northern Wei rule for many years. • Lady Yu gave knowledge of the rites for ceremonial occasions. • Lady Mu gave him access to the Northern Wei elites. • The princess of Rouran allied him with her people and strengthened his position against the Westen Wei.
Imperial Women of the Northern Qi • The nomadic custom of levirate was practiced and wives of one ruler would be passed to his successor: • At least two of his wives remarried after his death. • 50% of the wives and concubines of Northern Qi rulers with biographies who lived long enough to remarry did so. • 75% of women with biographies as empresses remarried. • 1/3 of the women who remarried became wives of the incoming ruler -- usually a brother of the late husband. • 13% of the concubines remarried a Gao family member .
The Northern Qi:Succession Problems • Gao Huan had at least 15 sons; six were the offspring of the main consort, Empress Dowager Lou. • After his death (547), his eldest son, Gao Cheng controlled the puppet Eastern Wei regime and was able to hold the loyalty of most of the Eastern Wei leadership and expand the domains of the empire. • Gao Cheng was assassinated and his brother Gao Yang executed the assassins -- the assassination might have been planned by Gao Yang (Wenxuandi: r.550-9) as two of Gao Cheng’s advisors fled the murder scene and became close advisors of Gao Yang. • In 550, Gao Yang ordered the abdication of the last Eastern Wei puppet and became the first Northern Qi emperor.
Succession Problems (2) • He executed two of the older and more influential half-brothers; the other surviving half-brothers. • All his brothers had numerous sons, many of whom felt themselves to be rightfully entitled to the throne. • Violent political problems developed between the full brothers and also with the descendants of the line of Gao Cheng. • Prior to his death in 559, Gao Yang asked his next eldest brother, the future Xiaozhao, not to kill Gao Yang’s son should the brother want to seize the throne.
Succession Problems (3) • When Gao Yang died, his son, ascended the throne but the grandmother, Grand Empress Dowager Lou preferred that her next eldest son, Xiaozhao, and not her grandson. • In mid-560, ED Lou became a major supporter of her second son’s coup and the grandson was deposed by his grandmother. • Later that year, Xiaozhao made his son Bainian his heir and it upset his brother, Gao Zhan, who had expected to succeed him. • In 561, Xiaozhao was critically injured after falling from a horse and asked his brother Gao Zhan not to hurt his son; but as soon as Gao Zhan became emperor he had his nephew beaten and beheaded.
Succession Problems (4) • When Gao Zhan ascended to the throne as Wuchengdi, the dynasty had a history of aborted primogenital successions and successful fraternal successions. • To ensure that his son would succeed him, he retired in 565 making his son the emperor but retained power in his own hands as the Retired Emperor. • After Wuchengdi died, Houzhu reigned until the sudden collapse of the dynasty in 576, a full 7 years. • Houzhu’s succession was the only successful primogenital succession in the history of the dynasty -- except for Gao Huan’s eldest son who had inherited power from him before the establishment of Northern Qi.
The Northern Wei When Gao Huan was victorious against the troops of Erzhu, the was a large Erzhu army left a large army in the west and his principal generals met to choose Yuwen Tai as the new leader. After his election Yuwen Tai absorbed the newly arrived refugees from Gao Huan -- military-political elites -- and named his own puppet in the west -- first emperor of the Western Wei. Yuwen Tai ruled Western Wei through his Tuoba puppet. He reversed the hated law (496) requiring everyone to have Chinese surnames and recognized Xianbei surnames. He stabilized the eastern border and bribed the Turks with tribute to keep peace on his western and northern borders. When he was dying he named his nephew, Yuwen Hu, the son of his eldest brother as regent. 38 2014/8/22
The Northern Zhou (557-581) • Yuwen Hu then deposed the puppet Tuoba emperor and enthroned Yuwen Jue (542-57), a 14 year old son of Yuwen Tai (506-56), as ruler of a revived Zhou dynasty claiming legitimacy for the clan through descent from Shennong 神农. • When the young emperor was maturing he tried to get rid of Yuwen Hu but Hu was informed of this by one of the emperor’s personal companions who was appointed to keep watch on him. • Yuwen Hu had the emperor killed and made Tai’s eldest son, Mingdi, emperor at the age of 23. • Since Mingdi was an adult, Hu abolished the regency but continued to retain full authority over the military. • When Mingdi began to name his own people in important offices, Hu was had him poisoned in 560.
The Regency of Yuwen Hu • Yuwen Hu then made Wudi, Tai’s fourth eldest son, emperor at the age of 17. • Wudi included his brothers in his plot to get rid of Hu. • During a private audience with the Empress Dowager, Wudi hit Hu over the head with the imperial scepter and then Wudi’s brother, beheaded Hu – all Ju’s children who were politically active and Hu’s closest advisers were killed. • Wudi said that he had to kill Yumen Hu as it was not possible for a 30 year old emperor to submit to the control of another. • Wudi (561-578) died suddenly after a 17 year reign and his son, Xuandi (r.579), ascended the throne.
The End of the Northern Zhou • Xuandi was not like his father who had solicited court opinion and the views of his close paternal relatives. • His major concern was to eliminate the political roles of his uncles and the close personal advisers of his deceased father and did this through murder as well as divide and conquer tactics. • He killed his influential uncle and scattered his five surviving uncles throughout the empire. • He executed all the members of Wudi’s innermost advisers.
The Ascension of Xuandi (3) • He adopted a divide and rule tactic and installed 5 women as empresses, ranked in order of seniority. • The daughter of Yang Jian, the future founder of the Sui dynasty, was the senior empress and was given to him in 573 when he was first named heir apparent. • The middle three were all from families of little or no influence in Zhou political circles. • The last was the daughter of the senior courtier, son of Yuwen Tai’s younger sister. • It was said that he made her drunk and seduced her. • This insult caused the husband to rebel but the rebellion was rapidly crushed.
The End of the Northern Zhou • He now wanted to rename his 5th consort “Retired Empress”; but to do so he had to eliminate his senior empress, the daughter of Yang Jian. • To do so, he had to also exterminate the entire Yang family. • Yang Jian’s friends learned of this and when the Retired Emperor became ill, Yang’s friends forged an edict summoning Yang Jian to the bedside. • When Xuandi died, Yang Jian kept it secret until he could assume the regency of the young emperor. • Yang Jian won the struggle for power against the senior princes and in 581 and proclaimed a new Sui dynasty (581-618).
Reference • Lady Chang • Empress Dowager Feng • Empress Dowager Ling
Lady Chang • Gaozong’s foster mother, Chang 常, She was a captive concubine with few relatives of influence at court and so was appointed as foster mother for the future Gaozong. • Lady Yu, Gaozong’s natural mother was a member of Rouran柔然 aristocracy which was the only northern threat to Tuoba security; so she was kept away from her son during his formative years. • As Gaozong’s foster mother, Lady Chang arranged for him to marry another captive imperial woman from the Northern Yan, Lady Feng, who would later become empress and an important ruler as regent. • Lady Chang may have helped Gaozong get support for the throne after he had been passed over twice.
Lady Chang (cont.) • Three years after his succession, Gaozong’s infant son, aged 2, was formally proclaimed heir. • The captive concubine, Feng, from the house of Northern Yan was named empress and the natural mother of the heir was forced to commit suicide. • Lady Chang was said to have been responsible for the reintroduction of the law on forced suicide for the mother of the heir. • The early appointment of an infant heir, his mother’s death, and the naming of consort from the Feng family may have been Lady Chang’s strategies to maintain her privileged position in the harem and to protect the interests of Northern Yan.
Empress Dowager Feng • After the deaths of Lady Chang and Gaozong, Empress Feng, at the age of 23, made her first bid for power as regent for the new emperor, Xianwendi (r.456-470), who had succeeded to the throne at the age of 11. • She tried to be sole regent but was not successful. • Instead, there was a three-way power struggle for control of the regency between her, the Tuoba elite, and a faction headed by Lieutenant Chancellor Yi Hun (c.461) who had fought and murdered his way to the position of Chancellor . • After the Tuoba elite and ED Feng together got rid of Yi Hun, she was able to dominate court policy for less than a year before being made to retire as the emperor came to power at the age of 13. • Xianwendi then consolidated his power and had got rid of all of Feng’s supporters, especially her Chinese allies, and executed her lover, Li Yi and his brothers.
Empress Dowager Feng(cont.) • After retiring from being regent, Feng fostered Xianwendi’s son, Xiaowendi (r.471-499) who had been named heir-apparent in 469 and his mother, Lady Li, had been ordered to commit suicide. • Xiaowendi was only 9 when he succeeded to the throne. • Only three or four years remained in which the ED was able to make political decisions in her own right as regent. • She has had nine years of psychological control over the young emperor so psychologically, if not legally, her position at the court was very secure. • As the emperor grew older, her influence did not decline but instead increased. • Throughout her life, she tutored, counseled and even physically punished him.
Empress Dowager Feng(cont.) • ED Feng maintained her position of authority by promoting respected and capable officials who were not from her family. • Her brother had been her only close relative and she was able to share the traditional positions for relatives at court between him and members of the Chang clan. • She kept the emperor’s own maternal relatives from power — his mother, Lady Li, had been given the posthumous title of empress in 476, the year of Xianzu’s death. • She filled the key positions in the emperor’s harem with her brother’s daughters and brought his sons into the palace as companions for him. • The nephews were later married to Tuoba princesses. • She also forced the emperor to order the suicide of the mother of his heir; she then fostered the young boy.
Empress Dowager Lady Feng • The emperor did not name an official consort until three years after Feng’s death. • At that time, he had been emperor for 22 years and was 31 years old. • Even after Feng’s death in 490 he was unable to escape her influence: • His harem was filled with her nieces. • His ministers had been chosen by her. • His eldest son had been brought up by her. • She even ordered him to build his tomb next to hers but he was not buried there. • On his death bed, the emperor ordered the suicide of his consort, one of the nieces of ED Feng.
