Four
The Marriage of Sung Imperial Clanswomen

John W. Chaffee

The marriage connections of the Sung imperial clan might seem at first glance to be of questionable significance to the issue of marriage and inequality in China. Marriage of imperial clansmen and clanswomen did not affect succession to the throne or the creation of powerful consort families, like the imperial marriages studied by Jennifer Holmgren and Evelyn Rawski elsewhere in this volume. The imperial clan, in the Sung and other dynasties, was the closest the Chinese imperial system came to an hereditary aristocracy. Yet the clan might also be seen as a parasitic appendage of emperorship, an aristocracy without power because, in Northern Sung times at least, its members were barred from substantive, high-ranking political posts. Why, then, study the marriage relations of a group that was so obviously unique in Sung elite culture as the Chao clan?

The first and most obvious reason is that, like the medieval French royalty so brilliantly evoked by Georges Duby (1978), the Chaos were exemplary. Marriages of Chao princes and princesses were lavish affairs witnessed by the multitudes of the court and capital and enacted in accordance with detailed ritual codes (see also Rawski, in this volume). Even the weddings of distant kinsmen were public events given the prestige and the exchange of assets that accompanied them. Even if, as Holmgren argues in her chapter, imperial marriages reflected imperial needs more than the social practices of the elite, these marriages had great symbolic importance in the society at large. The second reason is that the Chaos were socially, politically, and economically powerful, though that power changed over time. Through most of the Northern Sung, they were excluded from political office and socially segregated within their palaces; but they were often influential with their kinsman, the emperor. In the Southern Sung, by contrast, the personal in-

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fluence of the Chaos declined even as they came to fill local government posts in great numbers and produced two chief councillors.

The third reason is that marriage wove the Chaos into the fabric of Sung upper-class society. This paper will examine who, how, and where they married, but its particular focus will be the marriage of women out of the imperial clan. Because such marriages were a priori downward, or hypogamous (clanswomen were "sent down" [chiang ] out of the clan in contrast to women being "selected" [hsuan ] into the clan as wives), a built-in tension existed between an imperial clanswoman's status superiority and her gender inferiority. The problem of the highborn wife was common throughout Chinese history; what is of interest here is that it was commonly acknowledged and discussed for Sung clanswomen.

Finally, the Chao clan's marriage relations are of interest because of the abundant sources on them. Because the clan was an imperial, and not simply a private, concern, its marriage policy was the subject of a wealth of memorials, essays, edicts, and regulations. Most important are the seven chüan devoted to clan affairs and institutions in the Sung hui-yao .^[1] The dynastic Sung History , Sung encyclopedias, memorial collections, and collected writings contain pertinent information too. The dynastic records of imperial princesses—daughters of emperors—together with the fourteen funerary inscriptions that I found for clanswomen (plus two other cases in which ample evidence of the marriage partners is available from other sources) do not begin to compare with those for clansmen.^[2] The records are useful, however, as a biographical base for characterizing their marriages.

Using these sources in this essay, I shall attempt to piece together a picture of clanswomen's marriages, and changes in them, during the Sung. In doing so, I address three related questions. First, what kinds of exchanges were involved in the women's marriages and, more specifically, what were the purposes behind the government's clan marriage regulations? We shall see that an imposing array of goods and recruitment privileges constituted the official dowry of the clanswoman. Indeed, the inability of the groom's family to reciprocate in kind raises questions about the meaning of such marriage exchanges. Second, whom did the clanswomen marry? Drawing from both the imperial marriage regulations and inscription evidence, I shall show that the social and geographic backgrounds of the marriage partners varied both over time and according to the position of the woman within the clan. Third, how did these marriages deal with issues of inequality in light of the innate tension between the subordinate role clanswomen were supposed to assume in their husbands' families on the one hand, and the superior connections, resources, and power that they brought into their marriages on the other? Perhaps most important, we shall see how the same regulations and practices assumed very different meanings as the clan itself underwent radical

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changes. For that reason, we must first consider, if only briefly, the history, structure, and character of the imperial clan itself.

The Imperial Clan

To begin on a semantic note, I am using the term "imperial clan" for the Chinese tsung-shih because by the Southern Sung it did in fact approximate the anthropologist's "clan"—that is, "a unilineal descent group of widest extent, in which the most inclusive relationships are not reckoned through a genealogy" (Goody 1983:295).^[3] A caveat is necessary because the clan had what it called the Office of the Jade Register (Yü-tieh-so ), which maintained a comprehensive genealogy (SS 117:3890). By the thirteenth century, however, when thousands of clansmen were scattered around the empire and frequently related to each other only to the twelfth or thirteenth degree, the House of Chao acted far more like a clan than a lineage. This was especially true because the dynastic flight south at the end of the Northern Sung re-suited in a loss of genealogical records that exhaustive efforts at reconstruction could not fully remedy.

At the beginning of the Sung, the House of Chao consisted of the Chao brothers K'uang-yin (929-76), Chiung (939-97), and T'ing-mei (respectively the emperors T'ai-tsu [r. 960-76] and T'ai-tsung [r. 976-97] and the prince of Wei) and their families,^[4] and it seems to have functioned with a minimum of organization. By the middle of the eleventh century, however, the Chaos' numbers and residences had proliferated, and they had their own bureaucracy, staffed at first by clansmen, which issued increasingly detailed regulations for the clan.^[5] This organization was necessary because of the clan's spectacular growth during the Northern Sung. A twelfth-century enumeration, by generation and branch, of the clan's genealogy is shown in table 4.1. There are problems with interpreting the figures for the later generations on the list, for they were still being produced at the time of its compilation. Record keeping was also disrupted by the Jurchens' capture of much of the clan during the 1126 invasion. For the earlier generations, however, we can see a truly remarkable record of growth. The twenty-three clansmen (clanswomen were not included) of the first generation grew to almost six thousand by the seventh. This fecundity, which I believe reflects the ready supply of concubines available to the Chao clansmen more than any unusual fertility on the part of Chao wives, presented the government with two problems.

First, the clan was becoming expensive. In 1067 the monthly support (in cash and grain) for the clan exceeded 70,000 strings, and this did not include expenses for birthdays, marriages, and funerals or the seasonal clothing allowances. This sum compared with 40,000 for the entire capital

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bureaucracy and 110,000 for the capital armies (SHY:TH 4:31b). Second, the clan in the mid-eleventh century had begun producing children who were not mourning kin of the emperor—that is, beyond the already marginal fifth degree of kinship (t'an-mien ). According to Han and T'ang precedents, they should have been sent out of the capital, given land, and then severed forever from imperial support. This would have solved the problem of the escalating costs of the clan. Yet, in two stages, the late Northern Sung emperors and their reform-minded chief councillors chose to break with tradition and support the nonmourning kin, albeit at reduced levels.

In 1069 the emperor Shen-tsung (r. 1068-85) ordered that kin of the sixth generation and below no longer be given names and official rank by the throne. Records of their births and deaths, however, were still to be maintained, and the men were to be permitted to take special examinations for entry into officialdom (SHY:CK 20:5b-6a). The following year sixth-generation kin were also ordered out of clan housing, a move prompted by severe overcrowding (SHY:CK 20:6a; SHY:TH 4:20b). One noteworthy change that eventually followed from the 1070 order occurred in 1082 when clansmen of the fifth degree and below were permitted, after the death of their parents, to form separate households and divide the family property (except for "fields held in perpetuity" [yung-yeh t'ien ] and sacrificial objects). This practice, standard among commoner families, was said to have "never occurred" in the clan; hitherto, all of their support had come from the government (SHY:TH 5:8a-b). These distant clansmen and women now found themselves in a limbo of partial recognition and limited privilege, which as we shall see below informed their marriage relations as well.

Then, in 1102, chief councillor Ts'ai Ching (1046-1126) proposed an ambitious plan for two large residential complexes called the Halls of Extended Clanship (Tun-tsung yuan ). Supported by charitable estates (i-chuang ) endowed out of local governmental resources, the residences were to be established at the Western and Southern capitals, that is, Lo-yang and Ying-t'ien fu (SHY:CK 20:34a-b). This proposal, which was accepted by the emperor Hui-tsung (r. 1101-25), entailed two new bureaucracies known jointly as the Two Capitals Offices of Imperial Clan Affairs (Liang-ching tsung-cheng-ssu ), which provided housing and support (in the form of cash and grain allowances, wedding and funeral expenses) for these clansmen and women. Their scale was impressive: in 1120 the southern Hall of Extended Clanship reported holdings of 44,000 ch'ing of fields (roughly 660,000 acres) and more than 23,600 rooms (chien ) of buildings (fang-lang ); even then there were complaints about insufficient resources and space (SHY:CK 20:36b-37a).

The decision of Shen-tsung and, then, Hui-tsung to support the non-mourning kin is an interesting issue that can only be touched upon here. Moroto Tatsuo has linked this decision to the Sung policy of elevating the civil over the military and suggests further that it was part of a general Sung

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ideology of benevolence (onkeishugi ) (1958:628), though he does not say why that benevolence was applied at this time and to the imperial clan. One plausible explanation is that they were influenced by the renewed interest in the tsung (extended kinship group, or clan) voiced by such men as Ou-yang Hsiu (1007-72), Su Hsun (1009-66), and Ch'eng I (1033-1107) (Ebrey 1984a: 229-32). At a time when the scholar-officials were advocating stronger tsung , it would have looked amiss for the emperor to cut off most of the imperial clan, which was the quintessential tsung . This hypothesis, however, will have to await further consideration elsewhere.

The Extended Clanship Halls as well as the clan's entire K'ai-feng establishment came to an abrupt end with the loss of northern China to the Jurchen in 1126, though this was far from the end of the clan. Those who escaped fled pell-mell to the south. By the time a measure of stability and order were restored, the clan had two offices in Fu-chien—at Fu-chou and Ch'üan-chou (continuing the old Western and Southern Capital administrations)—and in Shao-hsing fu (Liang-che-tung) and Lin-an, the capital (CYTC 1.1:25-26). But few Southern Sung clansmen lived at the capital, partly because the government, citing high housing and living costs, early on discouraged them from settling there (SHY:TH 6:12b-13a). The general infertility of the Southern Sung emperors also meant that the clan had few close imperial kin. Thus Fu-chou, Ch'üan-chou, and Shao-hsing prefectures became the main centers of clan resettlement, with Ch'üan-chou claiming some 2,244 clansmen in the early thirteenth century (CWCKCC 15:11a); clansmen could be found in every part of the empire, often supervised only loosely by local officials and clan elders.

The dispersed and diminished circumstances of the imperial clan, however, were paralleled by a growth in the political power of many clan families. Although they had first been permitted to hold local offices (wai-kuan ) in the 1070s, the disordered conditions of the early Southern Sung saw them employed in large numbers to fill vacancies in the bureaucracy and even the army. So widespread were they that quotas were established limiting the numbers of clansmen who could serve in a given county or prefecture (SHY:TH 5:32b-33a). Thereafter, though producing two chief councillors and a number of high-ranking officials in the court, they were most prominent in local government. The Chaos also became a major presence in the examinations, in which they were given preferred treatment (see Chaffee 1985: 106-8). There was a paradox here. The growing numbers and increasing genealogical distance of most Chaos from the emperor led to general reduction in status and affluence, but their humbler, less-threatening position undoubtedly facilitated their assumption of real, if limited, power. Thus they became more like the shih-ta-fu elite even while maintaining their imperial clan status, with its attendant privileges and regulations.

The Sung imperial clan thus underwent radical changes over the course of

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the dynasty. The wealthy, centralized, though politically powerless clan of the mid-eleventh century bore little resemblance to the Southern Sung clan, which was much humbler and more dispersed, yet contained many individually consequential members. Likewise, there were vast differences between the immediate imperial families, the holders of hereditary noble titles, and the distant kin who were, at times, reduced to poverty.^[6] Yet all of them branched from the Son of Heaven in the eyes of the emperor and his officials and were governed by the same sets of concerns and regulations. As we turn to the clanswomen and their marriages, we must therefore keep in mind both the clan's diversity and hierarchy and also its unity, when viewed from the outside.

The Regulation of Marriage

The earliest Sung record of imperial clan marriage regulations dates from 1029, some seventy years into the dynasty, when the proliferation of clans-men was already rendering the less formal nuptial procedures obsolete. Emperor Jen-tsung ordered each clan palace—of which there were ten—to submit a list of clansmen aged eighteen and clanswomen aged fifteen (Chinese style) to be considered for marriages. While specifying administrative procedures including the appointment of eunuch investigators and the emperor's personal approval, the edict goes on to specify that marriage partners "whose talent and age are suitable" should be sought from among "the elite families of examination graduates" (i-kuan shih-tsu ), families without artisans, merchants, or "miscellaneous elements" (tsa-lei ), and with no history of treasonous activities (SHY:CK 20:4b).

Several aspects of this edict deserve comment. First, there was no question that all clan members should marry, and marry young. In contrast to Europe, where a variety of factors combined to limit marriage and therefore fertility, in China fertility was maximized in every way possible, and nowhere was that truer than for the imperial clan. There were, to be sure, clanswomen who became Buddhist or Taoist nuns,^[7] but they were exceedingly rare. Second, clan marriages were considered state business in which the young clan member's immediate family had no formal role. The provision requiring the approval of the emperor himself was a mark of the importance accorded them, and as we shall see below the emperor himself at times initiated marriages. There was, finally, a great concern that the marriage partners come from proper families. The proscribed categories of artisan, merchant, and "miscellaneous elements" were the same as those for examination candidates, but the requirement that they come from elite families—which meant families with a history of government service—was not. The government wanted to ensure that its marriage ties were with families from the ruling elite.

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Over the succeeding half-century, this question of the social background of affinal relatives gave rise to a great deal of legislation (table 4.2). In 1058 it was decreed that commoners (pai-shen-jen ) who married clanswomen needed either a three-generation record of office holding or one direct ancestor with at least capital rank, and moreover had to be recommended by a court or capital-rank official (SHY:CK 20:5a; HCP 187:10a). Six years later this was decreased to a flat requirement of two ancestors who had been officials (SS 115:2739), and in 1088 was further reduced, for clan members of the fifth degree, to one official (HCP 409:4b). The proscribed categories also underwent change. In 1077 families of "miscellaneous elements" were defined as those with slaves among the males or prostitutes among the females, and also as those with parents or grandparents who had lived along a border and had served two regimes. Clansmen and women within the fourth degree were barred from marrying the sons or grandsons of clerks, officials who had gained rank via purchase or special skills, in addition to the aforementioned artisans, merchants, and "miscellaneous elements."^[8] It was further specified that the required paperwork was the responsibility of the groom's family, though the guarantors, the Office of Imperial Clan Affairs and the Palace Domestic Service, were all legally responsible for the information contained therein (SS 115:2739). Finally, in 1088 the proscriptions for the fourth-degree kin from 1077 were extended to fifth-degree kin (HCP 409:4b), and

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later that year a further category was added, marriage with the families of eunuchs (nei-ch'en ), on the grounds that because they had access to the palace living quarters, marriage connections with them would be inappropriate (SHY:TH 5:7b).

These provisions dealt only with clan members within the fifth degree of mourning and initially, at least, nonmourning kin were not included. A lengthy memorial from 1069 proposing to restructure the rights and privileges of clan members specified that "nonmourning clanswomen" follow the marriage laws for commoner families, but then added that they "should not marry into nonelite (fei shih-tsu ) families" (ibid., TH 4.33b). This qualification apparently was not included when the restructuring was enacted later that year, for the 1077 and 1088 edicts cited above mention only the use of the laws for commoner families. But by the thirteenth century if not before, restrictions were being applied to the nonmourning kin as well. A memorial by the Great Office of Imperial Clan Affairs in 1213 stated: "Although by law, legitimate imperial clansmen and women of the sixth degree and below are to marry according to the laws for commoner families, the commentaries [chu-wen ] should be cited: that the sons and grandsons from families with miscellaneous elements or with a history of criminals or traitors are unacceptable as [marriage] relations." Further quoting the commentaries on the definition of "miscellaneous elements" (the exact language of the 1077 edict is used), the memorial stated that powerful and wealthy local families were conspiring with "unregistered clansmen" to obtain clan status for the latter and were then marrying them in order to gain official status for themselves. As a consequence, clerical families were thereafter barred from marrying with clansmen (SHY:TH 7:30a-b). I shall return to the issue of official rank as a reward for marriage and the problems associated with it; here it is enough to note that, having accepted the responsibility for continuing to support the nonmourning imperial kin, the government eventually found itself forced to police their marriages as well.

The government's active role in clan marriages was paralleled in other aspects of clanswomen's lives as well. For example, a fairly liberal attitude was taken toward divorce by clansmen and women. It was permitted if there were grounds for separation as spelled out in the law code or even evidence of incompatibility (pu hsiang-an ), but, first, an investigation was required by the Office of Imperial Clan Affairs (SS 115:2739-40; SHY:TH 5:1a).^[9] Also, in the philanthropic atmosphere of Hui-tsung's reign, special provisions were made for orphaned clanswomen and childless widows without close relatives to enter the Halls of Extended Clanship and receive an allowance of grain and cash. In addition, remarriage allowances were authorized for clans-women who were nonmourning kin (SHY:CK 20:36a). The following year living quarters at the halls were authorized for orphaned clanswomen and for both legally divorced and widowed clanswomen who had returned to the

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clan, though if they had living parents, uncles, or brothers, they were required to live with them (SHY:CK 20:36a).

In the Southern Sung these precedents led to an acknowledged responsibility for the care of clan orphans and single women, though often that care took the form of the individuals having the right to draw their allowances from the local government coffers. These allowances were not large—in 1158 they were set at a string of cash and a shih of grain per month for those fifteen sui or over, half that for those younger (SHY: TH 6:30a)—but it was a significant commitment given the large numbers of kin potentially involved. A desire to contain costs could also lead to further regulation of the clans-women's lives; in a memorial from 1162 we find an "unmarried clanswoman who has exceeded her time limit [for marriage]" (wei-hsien wei-chia tsung-nü ) by a year, asking for an additional year to give her relatives time to arrange a marriage. If after that time she were still unmarried, she would receive the lesser allowance of a returned clanswoman (SHY:CK 20:40a). The proposal, which was accepted, is the only reference I have found to such a time limit, but it suggests the degree of involvement in the personal lives of these women that these regulations entailed.

Official Dowries and Marriage Exchanges

One of the underlying reasons for the government's careful regulation of clan marriages was that marriage to a clanswoman brought a family not merely prestige but significant benefits as well. These benefits, or "official dowries" as I shall call them, took a variety of forms, most of them set according to the rank or relationship of the clanswoman to the emperors, past or present.

There was, first, the formal dowry, or lien-chü , the money and goods that the government provided at the woman's marriage. For an imperial princess (kung-chu ), these could be considerable, as the following enumeration from the Sung History's section on wedding ritual suggests: a jade belt with an outer coat, a silver saddle and bridle, and four hundred rolls of fine silk were the gifts stipulated for "joining relatives" (hsi-ch'in ); ten thousand ounces (liang ) of silver formed the "expenses for separating from the imperial household" (pien-ts'ai —twice the amount set aside for princes' betrothal gifts); and following the wedding, the princess was given a mansion (chia-ti ), four fans, ten flower screens, and ten candlestick holders (SS 115:2732). There seems to have been considerable variation in what was actually given, especially in the Northern Sung when emperors were exceptionally generous to their daughters. In 1067 Shen-tsung remarked that the cost of marrying one princess could run to 700,000 strings of cash (JCSP 14:4a-b), while the marriage of Jen-tsung's daughter, the Yen-kuo princess (see Appendix, no. 4), in 1057 involved a dowry of twenty horses, twenty cows, two camels, two hundred sheep, fifty ch'ing of land (about eight hundred acres), three estates, ten

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slaves, two house officials, and four cooks (SHY:TH 8:11a).^[10] Lesser but still sumptuous gifts are also detailed for commandary princesses (chün-chu , the daughters of the heir-apparent) and county princesses (hsien-chu , the daughters of princes, or wang ): a gold belt for hsi-ch'in , five thousand ounces of silver for the pan-ts'ai , with other gifts valued at one-third those of emperors' daughters (SS 115:2732).

All clanswomen were supposed to receive at least some dowry. A dowry scale set during the Hsi-ning period (1068-77) specified five hundred strings for great-great-granddaughters of emperors (yuan-sun-nü ), three hundred and fifty for clanswomen in the fifth generation, three hundred for those in the sixth, two hundred and fifty for those in the seventh, and one hundred and fifty for those in the eighth (CYTC 1.1:25).^[11] The dowry amounts specified for the last three of these are of special interest because they were for women who are beyond the mourning circle, thus indicating the government's continuing support of their marriages. In 1137 these dowries were cut by two-fifths for the great-granddaughters, one-third for the sixth- and eighth-generation women, and two-sevenths for those in the fifth and seventh generations. But even so, financially pressed local governments (to which this responsibility had fallen) at times refused to pay. In one instance in 1162 funds for dowry payments had to be specially sent from the court to Ch'üan-chou. As one of the largest clan centers in the empire and the seat of a clan office, Ch'üan-chou had a particularly heavy burden (CYTC 1.1:25). Whether even these reduced dowries continued to be paid through the Southern Sung (especially as increasingly distant generations were produced) is hard to say, but one essay from the mid-thirteenth century suggests that some payments were maintained, though only in a form inadequate to help some unfortunate clanswomen. Fang Ta-ts'ung (1183-1247), himself the brother-in-law of a clanswoman (no. 15, Appendix), wrote in the course of an essay on the fiscal problems of the imperial clan, that,

According to precedent, when clanswomen get married they are to have a cash dowry (tzu-chi ). Now there are those [in families] living outside [the clan residences] who are forced to marry when they have just come of age (at the hairpin ceremony) because [their families are] worried about the money and food they are wasting. Why is it that the prefectural officials do not want to relieve their grievous condition and give them the affection due the Heavenly lake [of imperial kin]? (TAC 26:7a)

Significant as the clanswomen's cash dowries were (and in the 1162 Ch'üan-chou case cited above it was claimed that many poor clanswomen were unwilling to marry without it), even more important were recruitment privileges conferred on the husband and his family, a practice established during the T'ang dynasty (JCSP 16:5b). The basic privilege, as enunciated in 1070, provided the husband with the low military service rank of attendant

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of the three ranks (San-pan feng-chih —rank 9B). If he were already an official, he was entitled to a promotion of one rank (kuan ) (SHY:TH 4:23b-24a). The promotion privilege had previously been limited to husbands of clanswomen of the fourth-degree kin or above who were already capital-rank officials, but the 1070 edict extended it to all fifth-degree clanswomen's husbands, regardless of their rank or post. For the husbands of commandary and county princesses, a slightly higher initial rank of duty attendant (Tien-chih ) was given, while the husbands of princesses were made commandant-escort (Fu-ma tu-wei ) (SS 115:2732; SMCTI 33:11b-12a). In addition, beginning in 1064 the husbands of clanswomen were permitted to sit for the examinations in the Locked Hall Examination (so-t'ing-shih ), a special preliminary examination for officials). They had previously been excluded from these examinations (SHY:TH 4:15a; HCP 202:1 b-2a).

Although the evidence on recruitment privileges in the Southern Sung is scanty, it would seem that the examinations came to play an important role. According to Hung Mai, writing in the mid-Southern Sung, a commoner marrying a clanswoman of the fifth degree could receive the prestige title of "court gentleman for ceremonial service" (Chiang-shih-lang ) if he were a chü-jen (that is, had passed the preliminary examinations); if not, he received the honorary military title of "gentleman for fostering temperance" (Ch'eng-chieh-lang ) or "gentleman of trust" (Ch'eng-hsin-lang ), both titles being equivalent to the Northern Sung "attendant of the three ranks." Although nominally higher than the civil rank, these designations were nevertheless less desirable because they were military (JCSP 16:5b). Whether these privileges were restricted to the marriages of mourning kin, however, is not entirely clear. If so, the vast majority of Southern Sung clanswomen would have been excluded. Li Hsin-ch'uan, a contemporary of Hung's, wrote that "those who have passed the preliminary examinations who marry clanswomen may enter the civil service" (CYTC 2.14:534). In a number of the cases discussed below, the husbands of Southern Sung clanswomen made use of their recruitment privileges. This evidence, together with Hung's assertion, suggests that the privileges were broadly applied.

Finally, the Southern Sung husbands of clanswomen were given the additional privilege of naming one son to office through protection, or yin (CYTC 1.6:86). Introduced in 1166, this privilege was separate from other protection privileges the husband might gain through his own or his family's accomplishments and further supports the notion of a liberal dispensation of recruitment privileges for clanswomen (or their husbands) in the Southern Sung. Indeed, it may be that as the state's ability to support lavish dowries declined, the government compensated in part with a lenient policy toward recruitment privileges, however shortsighted that would have been in the long run.

This legislated combination of dowry and privileges raises the question of the exchanges involved in clanswomen's marriages. These exchanges were

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like the royal dowries common to most European monarchial systems in that they drew on the resources of the state. But where royal marriages, in Europe at least, were made with other royalty as well as the nobility, in China there was no other royalty. Although it is true that in certain periods (such as the non-Han dynasties discussed by Holmgren and Rawski elsewhere in this volume) imperial clan marriages were used as an instrument of foreign policy, this seems not to have been the case during the Sung; indeed, imperial princesses without exception married Han Chinese. Whereas the largest royal dowries, like that of the Yen-kuo princess cited above, were personally tailored to women of the immediate royal family, the official marriage benefits for all other brides were impersonal, bureaucratic, and employed on a vast scale.

This evidence admittedly comes from the realm of political legislation rather than anthropological description. Still, assuming that the dowry legislation was largely adhered to (and for the Northern Sung at least that would seem reasonable), we can still ask after clan marriage exchanges. The state's role on behalf of the clan created such an asymmetry in the marriages as to render inapplicable much of the anthropological literature on dowry, such as Spiro's notion of economic exchange or Goody's of diverging devolution (Comaroff 1980: 3-8). Levi-Strauss's structural notion of marriage as a system of women for women exchanges (ibid., 26) is more useful, with the emperor, through the imperial clan, providing the ruling elite with women, dowries, and privileges, while the ruling elite reciprocated with women, loyalty, and service. Unlike the cultural structures that Levi-Strauss has so remarkably articulated, however, this structure was the invention of politics and was one of the building blocks of the Sung political order.

In their attempt to consolidate power and create a stable order, the early Sung emperors worked systematically to limit the power of all potential rivals, be they the military, families of empresses, great families with long traditions of office holding, or, as we have seen, the imperial clan. Their chief partner in this was the civil elite, which owed its position largely to land, wealth, the examinations, and bureaucratic achievement and was more broadly based than ever before. I would suggest that imperial marriages formed a part of that partnership, for they demonstrated imperial beneficence. The blessings of such marriages were admittedly mixed, for hypogamous unions put a strain on the grooms' families, as will be seen below; but the wealth, office, and potential influence still made such marriages attractive.

During the Southern Sung the government's role in deciding marriage matches seems to have ceased. The clanswomen's inscriptions speak in places of individual go-betweens and, once, of the need for official approval for the woman's husband to receive official rank but not at all of the government or clan organizations initiating and arranging marriages. Thus, if there had been broad political goals behind clan marriages in the Northern Sung,

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they must have disappeared, or at least have been greatly diluted, during the Southern Sung.

Another factor was at work apart from politics: that of honor. Honor, of course, was one of the assets the imperial clan had to offer. To quote Wang Meng-lung, who married Chao Ju-i (Appendix, no. 13; 1183-1221), "The honor of his wife is what a husband relies upon; the wealth of a husband is what contents his wife. This is certainly the rule when common families marry with the imperial clan" (SHWC 25:11a-12a). There was a concomitant fear of dishonor. The recruitment privileges, in one respect a measure of imperial grace, thus increasingly served to maintain the clan's respectability because they made even humble clanswomen attractive to elite families. In 1070 Wang An-shih argued in favor of a proposal to extend promotion privileges to officials marrying fifth-degree clanswomen: "This is a way of encouraging those who are officials to marry clanswomen and also [provides] a shortcut for entering officialdom" (SHY:TH 4:23b-24a; HCP 213:7a-b).

Wang was concerned not so much with making useful political connections for the emperor as ensuring that clanswomen and the clan itself be spared from improper marriages. In this he was not alone, for a recurring theme in writings on clanswomen's marriages was that they should not dishonor or sully the imperial clan. People did not always agree upon what constituted dishonor, however. In 1051 the head of the Bureau of Policy Criticism, Pao Cheng (998-1061), vehemently protested the pending marriage of a clanswoman to the son of one Li Shou, the former owner of an alum shop who had become an official via purchase. This match had been investigated and approved by censors and the Office of Imperial Clan Affairs, who declared that "this is not a family of skilled artisans or itinerant merchants." In other words, the regulations were designed to ensure an elite life-style and status (even if purchased) rather than ancestral background. Pao did not agree, arguing that suitable matches could be made only with families of renown and that "ritual teachings" (li-chiao ) must be followed strictly (SMCTI 33:10b-11a).

The sources do not reveal the outcome of Pao Cheng's objections, but his suggestion that clanswomen's marriages into "upstart" families violated the natural order was echoed by others. In 1068 the censor Liu Shu (1034 chin-shih ), in arguing unsuccessfully that clanswomen's marriages be restricted to currently serving civil and military officials, asserted that wealthy villagers falsely used the official genealogies of others to marry clanswomen. "For entangling the rules of the country," he wrote, "and dirtying that which is under Heaven, there is nothing worse than this" (SMCTI 33:11b-12a).

Even more remarkable, metaphorically and substantively, is a 1088 memorial by the drafting official P'eng Ju-li (1041-94) asking for a clarification of the marriage regulations for fifth-degree (t'an-mien ) clansmen anti women. Noting that fifth-degree kin are barred from marrying into "nonelite families" (fei shih-tsu chih chia ), he said he did not know what constitutes

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"elite families" because the specific occupational prohibitions applied only to fourth-degree kin, thus opening the way to marriages with officials via purchase and even those with treasonous backgrounds. He then continued:

In my opinion, that which accumulates greatly will flow lengthily and when far from the source will form a great lake. That is the nature of things. Now among the Son of Heaven's kin, if the ancestors reaching to the seventh generation are not forgotten, then their descendants stretching into the distance also cannot but be acclaimed. Even though the fifth-degree kin have all issued from the imperial ancestors and are identically connected to the body of the state (kuo-t'i ), they are made dirty, rustic and remote, and all can be taken [in marriage] as commodities. This does not honor the imperial ancestors. (SMCTI 33:12b-13a)

The consequences of this he then paints in vivid if melodramatic colors:

Powerful merchants and great traders, using wealth to dominate their communities, now pay from three to five thousand strings of cash to enter [officialdom] as instructors and registrars, and so steal the name of "elite family" (shih-tsu ). By further payment of several thousand strings, they can seek to become palace kin [i.e., marry with the imperial clan] and thus gain the status of "official household" (kuan-hu ). Stealing favor, robbing the state, relying on force, and humiliating the weak, how can this not be a disgrace to the state? (SMCTI 33:13a)

With this last assertion, P'eng adds a dimension to our notions of clan marriage exchanges, for here we see a different, sub-rosa, exchange of money for marriage and its attendant office, or at least allegations of it. The 1213 memorial mentioned above, which alleged conspiracies between powerful, wealthy families and unregistered clansmen, suggests his accusation had some basis in fact. We cannot say whether such exchanges were common, but given the clan's reduced circumstances in the Southern Sung it would not be surprising if they were.^[12]

Even more interesting are the images the memorial uses and the attitudes they reveal. Although the common Sung metaphor for the imperial clan was "branches of Heaven" (T'ien chih ), P'eng talks of the "body of the state," which can be sullied (thus echoing Liu Shu), but even more about a stream that flows to make a lake (recalling Fang Ta-ts'ung's earlier quoted reference to the "Heavenly lake of imperial kin"). His concern is with the purity of the imperial kin, and that was most threatened by the marriage of women. Because clanswomen had issued from the Son of Heaven, their husbands could pollute the ever-widening Heavenly lake.^[13]

The Affines

Whom did the clanswomen marry and where did they come from? Our biographical evidence for married princesses and clanswomen is limited, but

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taken together with other kinds of information, two hypotheses may be ventured. First, we know from the regulations described above that they were required to draw from the pool of bureaucratic families. And despite the complaints just discussed about merchants marrying into the clan, it is probable that until the late eleventh century at least, this requirement was largely fulfilled, for the clan was sufficiently small and concentrated. It would also make sense that the Northern Sung clanswomen generally married men whose families were either native to K'ai-feng or had settled there by virtue of official service. Because the imperial clan resided exclusively in K'ai-feng until the 1070s and did not move elsewhere in appreciable numbers until after 1102, K'ai-feng society would have been the natural focus of their marriage ties. K'ai-feng families so dominated the Northern Sung examinations (see Chaffee 1985:61-66) that the capital had plenty of bureaucratic families to supply spouses.

The available evidence supports the first hypothesis and is ambiguous about the second. The wives of Northern Sung clansmen came overwhelmingly from K'ai-feng families; of the fifty-seven wives of clansmen in Aoyama Sadao's guide to biographies, forty-eight (84 percent) of the fifty-seven clansmen's wives for whom family residence is known came from Kai-feng.^[14] Of the other nine, six came from the north China plain and two others came from long-established and successful bureaucratic families in Lang-chou (Ssu-ch'uan) and Hang-chou (Liang-che-hsi).^[15] In striking contrast to the marriages of clansmen, the husbands of Northern Sung princesses and clanswomen came predominantly from non-K'ai-feng families; of twenty-two for whom information about residency is available (Appendix, nos. 3-7, 20, 23-25, 27-28, 30-32, 36-37, 40-43, 45-46), nineteen came from provincial, predominantly northern families.^[16] This does not mean that the husbands themselves were provincials; because most came from long-established families with records of high military or civil office, they had probably spent much or all of their youths in the capital. Still, such wide-ranging family origins suggest an attention to provincial alliances on the part of the Sung emperors.

Priscilla Ching Chung, in her study of Northern Sung palace women, found that the dynasty drew heavily from military families and very little from scholarly families. She points to T'ai-tsu's famous drinking speech to his generals, in which he offers to intermarry his family with theirs, as evidence of a kind of military alliance marriage strategy (1981: 24-35). Jennifer Holmgren, while agreeing with Chung, has argued further that a key element of such a marriage policy was that the military elite was declining and therefore did not pose a threat to the bureaucratic elite (see her chapter in this volume). The princesses' marriages generally support that finding, for nine husbands were from prominent military families (nos. 23, 25, 30-32, 36, 40-41, 44), compared to five from high-ranking civil families (5, 20, 27, 43,

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37) and two from scholarly families (nos. 28, 42).^[17] But these figures obscure an important change in the husbands over time. In the early Sung princesses married military men almost exclusively. By the late Northern Sung not only were husbands chosen more frequently from scholarly and high civil families, but husbands from military families appear to have turned civil. Ch'ien Ching-chen (husband of no. 23), the scion of the royal Ch'iens of Wu-yüeh and subsequently of early Sung generals, was known for his learning and activities as a local official in the south (Ch'ang et al. 1974-765:4085), and Wang Shih-yueh (1044-1102; husband of no. 40), offspring of the early Sung general Wang Shen-ch'i, was the son of a chin-shih and classically educated (ibid., 1:335). Moreover, being related to empresses could also be important, as was the case with nos. 3, 4, and 27. Thus, by the late Northern Sung, family and personal ties with the palace or ministerial service had largely replaced military considerations in determining clanswomen's marriages.

One other intriguing piece of evidence suggests that by the late Northern Sung, the clanswomen's recruitment privileges were already proving potent attractions for wealthy but undistinguished families. With echoes of P'eng Ju-li, Chu Yü wrote in 1119:

In recent generations since clanswomen have become numerous, the [Office of] Clan Affairs has established several score official matchmakers to handle marriage discussions. Initially there were no limitations [with regard to] influential and wealthy families, and many gave gifts to the clan in their quest for matches, illicitly seeking an office so as to protect their households. Thereafter [these families and the clan] have sought each other out as kin. Rich people of the capital like the Ta-t'ung Chang family have married with as many as thirty or more county princesses. (PCKT 1:3-4)

The Southern Sung spouses exhibit quite different characteristics from their Northern Sung predecessors. First, they were truly dispersed geographically; none of them appears to have lived at the capital: four spouses came from the Chiang-nan circuits (no. 8 from Jao-chou, no. 9 from Fu-chou, no. 10 from Chi-chou, and no. 18 from Hung-chou), four from Liang-che-tung (nos. 12 and 14 from Ming-chou, no. 11 from Wu-chou and no. 13 from T'ai-chou), and three from Fu-chien (nos. 14 and 16 from Hsing-hua and no. 17 from Ch'üan-chou). This distribution was generally matched by the families of the clanswomen, but with a number of interesting differences. There are no indications that the families of nos. 8-12 and 17-18 lived in different prefectures from those of their husbands (although most of the inscriptions do not assert that their prefecture was the same), but the cousins Chao Ju-chieh (no. 15) and Pi-shan (no. 16) both moved from Ch'üan-chou, the seat of the Southern Imperial Clan Office, up the coast to Hsing-hua chun, and Chao Hsi-i (no. 14) moved from T'ai-chou north to Yin County of Ming-chou. Most remarkably, the family of Chao Ju-i (no. 13) was from Ch'ih-

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chou in Chiang-nan-tung, but she married Yuan Fu of Ming-chou, hundreds of miles to the east. These findings are interesting in the light of recent studies of Sung marriage patterns that have argued that the Southern Sung elites, in contrast to their Northern Sung counterparts, married predominantly with families from their own prefectures (see Hartwell 1982 and especially Hymes 1986). The Chaos, it would appear, were atypical and married more widely, though the precise social mechanisms for their doing so are still unclear.^[18]

The social backgrounds of the Southern Sung husbands also differ from those in the Northern Sung. With the possible exception of the interregional bride Chao Ju-i, whose three-generation genealogy is not given, the clans-women's forebears were almost all officials, less exalted in rank but including many who had been active officials, which agrees with what we know about the clan in the Southern Sung.^[19] Like their fathers and fathers-in-law, the Southern Sung husbands with just one exception (Lo Chin, the husband of no. 18) were or became officials. Two received chin-shih degrees (the husbands of nos. 13-14), in both cases after their marriages, and their wives are praised for their support. One husband, as we note above, entered via protection. We do not know how another four qualified for office (the husbands of nos. 8-9 and 12-13). Four husbands, however, either used their wives' privileges or explicitly chose not to do so. They thus merit further attention because their cases reveal a good deal about the use of this privilege and attitudes toward it.

For Lady Chao (no. 11), marriage to Hsu Shih came at the relatively late age of twenty-seven sui . Because the groom reportedly made the match "in the hopes of obtaining office and establishing his family," Lady Chao's privileges probably saved her from a life of spinsterhood. In writing about this, the philosopher Ch'en Liang (1143-94), who had been a friend of Hsu Shih's late father, Chieh-ch'ing, was initially dismayed: "I strongly regretted this [as it was] contrary to Chieh-ch'ing's intentions." He changed his mind, however, for he found that Shih "has increasingly worked at his studies and lately I have seen that his writings have daily improved." Moreover, upon meeting her, Ch'en found that she was "really unlike the daughter of a noble family" and had delighted even her mother-in-law. But then she died after just 130 days of marriage, much to everyone's distress (CLC 29:431).

In the case of Lady Chao of Lu-ling (no. 10), it was the husband who shared Ch'en's dislike of clanswomen's recruitment privileges, lacking as they did the prestige of more regular avenues. For years after their marriage, he disdained using his wife's privileges and lived the life of a poor aspiring scholar, studying, instructing his sons, and entertaining his fellow literati. Even after his younger brothers, a nephew, and many of his friends all became officials and he became an embittered recluse, he did not waver in this. At her suggestion, however, he sent some of his writings to the chief councillor

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Chou Pi-ta (1126-1204), who upon reading them recommended him for office (CCC 129:10b-12a). Not all spurned the clanswomen's privileges, however. Fang Ta-yü (1181-1234), the husband of Chao Pi-shan (no. 16), passed the Hsing-hua prefectural examination in 1204 and availed himself of his wife's privilege immediately after failing the metropolitan examination the next year (HTHSTCC 151:11a-12a; TAC 34:2a-b, 35:3b). Ch'iu Shuang, the husband of Pi-shan's cousin, Shan-i (no. 17), also used his wife's privileges, but the matter was complicated and thus instructive. Ch'iu had agreed to marry Shan-i, an orphan, on the recommendation of her cousin and guardian, who had praised her highly and also undoubtedly pointed out the advantages in it for Ch'iu, for according to the inscription,

Mr. Ch'iu had once been recommended in the local [examinations], so since he had married [a clanswoman], by the regulations of the Prince of P'u's House, he was supposed to receive office. But because there were those obstructing it, it seemed that it would have to be settled at the capital. Ju-jen [i.e., his wife Shan-i] said, "My oldest sister is married in Liang-che. We have long been separated and I have wanted to see her once [again]. Why don't we go together?" When Ch'iu finally received entry rank she was delighted but also encouraged him saying, "Scholars are supposed to achieve [success] on their own and not simply wait for imperial grace." Then suddenly, he was recommended for a post in [Liang-]che. She was very happy that he had gained a position of respect and established his name. (HTHSTCC 150:18a-b)

This passage is frustrating in its omissions—did they ever visit her sister?—but still instructive. The use of privilege we see, not as an automatic matter, but as a bureaucratic affair subject to delays and influence. The reference to the prince of P'u—the father of Emperor Ying-tsung (r. 1064-67)—is also interesting because all four of these clanswomen whose recruitment privilege was used or discussed were from that branch. Is this a coincidence or were they particularly favored? (Certainly they were all of humbler birth than the county princesses alluded to by Chu Yü earlier.) Because I know of no regulations according them special treatment, it must be left an open question. Perhaps most interesting is Shan-i herself. Although willing to use family connections to help her husband gain office, she appears to share the general disdain for relying exclusively on privilege. In fact, at the time of her premature death at twenty-eight sui , her husband was away sitting for the examinations, seeking the prestige and career advantages that accompanied the chin-shih degree.

The Issue of Inequality

Imperial clanswomen entered marriage with considerable resources of their own. Apart from their official dowries and such gifts that their families and friends (or the emperor) might have bestowed on them personally, the most

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noteworthy were noble titles. These ranged in rank order from the exalted commandery princess (chün-chu ) and county princess (hsien-chu ) mentioned above, through lady of virtue (shu-jen ), lady of eminence (shih-jen ), lady of excellence (ling-jen ), respectful lady (kung-jen ), lady of suitability (i-jen ), lady of peace (an-jen ) to the humblest title, child nurturess (ju-jen ).^[20] In our group of fourteen (not counting the princesses), one was named consort of state (kuo-fu-jen , no. 7), one was a commandery lady (no. 3), two were ladies of suitability (nos. 9 and 14), two ladies of peace (nos. 12 and 15), and four were child nurturesses (nos. 13 and 16-18). In four cases no titles were mentioned (nos. 6, 8, and 10-11).

Commandery and county princesses received biannual clothing allowances plus monthly cash and grain stipends. From Hung Mai's example of a county lady receiving a stipend of almost one hundred strings of cash, it is clear that allowances could be substantial (JCSP 3.14:4a-b). Although no stipends are mentioned for the lesser-ranked ladies, all titled clanswomen were granted recruitment privileges for their sons, which apparently were different from the earlier-mentioned privileges for their husbands: all could have one son or grandson named to receive official rank upon their deaths, and commandery and county princesses could also name offspring after they had attended two suburban sacrifices—the former could name four, the latter one (CYTC 2.14:531).

Titles as such were not unique to clanswomen; wives of clansmen and important officials were also titled. But few other wives from nonclan families could begin to match the influence that was the clanswomen's by virtue of their imperial connections, influence that some put to use. The emperor Kao-tsung (r. 1126-62) rebuked one princess for repeatedly asking him to promote her husband and on another occasion gently chastised an elderly princess for favoring her own son over her stepsons, although this did not stop him from meeting either of their demands (SS 248:8782, 8775).

In addition, the rights and privileges of early Sung princesses were at odds with some of the basic patriarchal principles of Chinese society. They lived, not with their in-laws, but in the mansions provided upon marriage. In the late 1060s the Wei-kuo great senior princess (no. 42) brought her mother-in-law, who had been living alone since her son's marriage, to live in a guest-house and plied her with delicacies (SS 248:8779). Half a century earlier the Yang-kuo great senior princess (no. 43) had been ordered by her brother, Chen-tsung (r. 997-1022), to use female ritual forms (fu-li ) when visiting her father-in-law's mansion (SS 248:8773). That she was commanded to do what other women did as a matter of course is explained in the biography of the Ching-kuo great senior princess (no. 30):

In the old system, the imperial son-in-law reduced his father to the genealogical level of sibling. At the time [the princess's husband, Li] Tsun-hsu's father,

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Chi-ch'ang, was deathly ill, and on Chi-ch'ang's birthday the princess visited him using a daughter-in-law's rituals (chiu-li ). The emperor [Chen-tsung] on hearing of this, secretly sent various clothes, a precious belt and utensils to help him live long. (SS 248:8774)

The Sung had inherited a system that claimed imperial prerogatives overrode considerations of generation and gender. But this did not sit well with the dynasty's Confucian principles, so the emperors themselves led the change, Indeed, as early as 1064 the imperial clan's etiquette regulations stated that "imperial clanswomen shall all serve their parents-in-law and their husband's relatives as if they were from the families of subjects" (SS 115:2739).

Such a rule only highlighted, however, the dilemma of reconciling the clanswomen's status as offspring of the Son of Heaven with their roles as wives and daughters-in-law. In the eyes of their (male) critics and biographers, there were two related problems. One was a belief that the clans-women, by virtue of their luxurious and sheltered upbringing, tended to be arrogant and spoiled. Although there was undoubtedly some truth to this perception, it should be noted that scholar-officials of the eleventh century had little sympathy for aristocratic life-styles. But even when the clans-woman was a model wife, the power and privilege of her imperial connection could be problematical for her husband's family. The tension between the competing inequalities of gender subordination and political hierarchy was hardly unique to imperial clanswomen, but it was acute for them and thus central to our understanding of their marriage relationships. In the remaining pages of this chapter I examine several specific cases stemming from these problems and consider the responses to them.

Both arrogance and imperial influence were evident in the case of the Yen-kuo princess. A favorite daughter of the emperor Jen-tsung, she had received a lavish dowry in 1057, described above, when she married Li Wei, the nephew of Jen-tsung's late mother the Chang-i empress (and therefore her cousin). She was given the unprecedented Yen-kuo title in 1061 despite protests that the designation was not mentioned in the ritual writings (SMCTI 33:2b-4a). Despite this special attention—or possibly because of it—an air of notoriety surrounded her. In 1060 she was criticized for using her influence to obtain a promotion for her wet nurse's (ju-mu ) nephew (SHY:TH 8:11b). The following year a controversy erupted between the princess and her husband's family that greatly upset the aged emperor and ended the marriage.

The trouble began when the princess was drinking one day with a eunuch, Liang Huai-chi, who served as her house manager, and saw her mother-in-law, Lady Yang, watching her. Infuriated, she beat Lady Yang, who then reported the matter to the emperor. Jen-tsung found his daughter and Liang

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to blame and apparently ordered him and another eunuch removed from her household.^[21] But when the princess then became hysterical and suicidal and tried to set her palace on fire, the emperor relented, although over the protests of Ssu-ma Kuang and other officials. The princess's palace supporters, after spying on Li Wei and trying unsuccessfully to gather incriminating evidence on him, nevertheless approached the emperor with unspecified accusations against Li. Jen-tsung's first response to this was silence, but after appeals by the empress and an attendant to the memory of his mother, he finally acted (this was in the first month of 1162) by confining the princess to the palace, sending Li Wei out as prefect of Wei-chou (in Ho-pei-hsi), sending Lady Yang to live with another son, exiling Liang Huai-chi, and dismissing various eunuchs who had been involved (HCP 196:4b-5b). This did not end matters, however. Once in Wei-chou, Li was apparently framed on charges of embezzling grain from the public granaries and exiled, while Liang Huai-chi's exile was canceled (SMCTI 33:6b-7b). In response to Li Wei's disgrace, his brother submitted a petition for him requesting a divorce, stating that "Wei is ignorant and stupid, inadequate to receive Heavenly grace, and so asks to be given a divorce." Before the emperor concurred, however, Ssu-ma Kuang delivered a passionate defense of Li. Reminding the emperor that the original intention behind the marriage had been to honor them, Ssu-ma stated: "Now Wei has been separated from his mother, their family has become outcast in its affairs, great and small are grieving [for them], and it may even [reach the point that they will be] unable to make a living" (HCP 196:6a; SMCTI 33:8a). Appealing once again to the memory of the Chang-i empress, whose death anniversary had just past, Ssu-ma asked for Li's return and greater acknowledgment of the princess's guilt. His appeal succeeded. The emperor demoted the princess to the lesser title of I-kuo princess (the only such demotion to occur in the Sung), citing her ill manners, troublesomeness, and disobedience (STCLC 40:215). He also granted the divorce but gave Li Wei two hundred liang of gold as a sign of his esteem (HCP 196:6a-b), saying, "Men of wealth and nobility need not all be imperial sons-in-law" (HCP 196:6a-b). He might have added that those who were need take great care.

Thirty-two years later another princess's marriage relations became a point of controversy, though in a different way. The Ts'ao-kuo princess,^[22] one of the emperor Shen-tsung's three surviving daughters, was married in 1090 to Han Chia-yen, the son of the late chief councillor Han Ch'i (1008-75) and brother of Han Chung-yen (1038-1109), who headed the Bureau of Military Affairs from 1092 to 1096. The marriage, which was imperially ordered to honor the memory of Han Ch'i (SS 248:8780), was not a great success. Han was reportedly "lacking in decorum and disrespectful" toward his wife and would spend the night away from their residence without warn-

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ing. As a punishment, he was censured and exiled to Ch'i-chou in Huai-nan-hsi (HCPSP 9:6b).

Then in a remarkable memorial, the outspoken P'eng Ju-li came to the defense of Han Chia-yen (SMCTI 33:8b-10b). P'eng begins with the familiar argument that the governance of the state, the family, and the husband-wife relationship are interrelated, stating: "If the distinctions between husband and wife are not proper, then when [the ruler] desires that his family affairs be ordered, the family's governance will fail, and as for desiring that the state be ordered, such a thing has never happened" (ibid., 9a). The ideal relationship, he suggests, is epitomized by the king's daughter in the Book of Odes, of whose wedding carriage it was said: "Are they not expressive of reverence and harmony,—The carriages of the king's daughters?" (Legge 1960:35). This may seem obscure, but P'eng explains that, "While the magnificence of the king's daughter's carriage and clothes are fitting for one who is noble and proud, she still upholds the way of the wife, and that is what makes her beautiful. Serving [her husband] she is subordinate, though originally she was above him" (SMCTI 33:9a). P'eng then turns to the case at hand, observing: "Now, because Chia-yen has been unable to subordinate the imperial princess, he has been discarded. This is a case of the wife gaining victory over her husband. If wives are able to gain victory over their husbands, then sons will defeat their fathers and subjects will defeat their ruler. If this source is once loosed, the stream will grow until it cannot be stopped" (ibid., 9a-b). Again, slightly later, he cautions: "Now if you cause wives to deceive their husbands, then in human relations [people will] revolt against their superiors, and customs will decay among those below" (ibid., 10a). Arguing that "small disputes" of a day and night should not be allowed to harm the "great love of a lifetime," P'eng ends by urging the emperor not to oppose his married relatives, so that his great ministers would then not dare to oppose him; thus might the stability of the state be ensured (ibid., 10a-b).

P'eng clearly thought that Han's shortcomings did not merit his punishment and thus shifted the blame to the princess, presumably for going to her brother the emperor rather than submitting quietly as a good wife should. We do not know whether his memorial, with its veiled threat to the young Che-tsung (r. 1086-1100) (a telling indication of the power and assurance of great families like the Hans) had any effect. What is interesting is his categorical insistence on the authority of the husband and the subordination of the wife, however exalted her family. This subordination, inconceivable for a princess in the early Sung, was largely unquestioned in our cases here of Southern Sung clanswomen. But before turning to them, let us digress briefly to consider one clanswoman whose assertiveness appears not to have interfered with her marriage.

From the time her mother was pregnant and her grandmother dreamed

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that a beautiful and brilliantly dressed young girl had descended from space (HCCSC 41:2b), Chao Tzu-chen (1097-1140), as seen in Sun Ti's lengthy inscription for her, had a dreamlike, larger than life character. Although she Was apparently raised outside of K'ai-feng as a seventh-generation descendent of T'ai-tsung, not an imperial mourning kin, her family seems to have commanded considerable respect. At her birth she was given presents by five families, and she married Yang Ts'un-chung (1102-66) from a prominent Tai-chou family of generals. At the time of the Jurchen invasion, with her husband away in the wars, Tzu-chen was instrumental in aiding local defense forces in Liang-che (after the family moved south, which is not mentioned), providing shelter for loyal soldiers, feeding the hungry, as well as directing the education of her children inasmuch as she was well educated in poetry and writing (ibid., 2a-3b). When the court was established in Lin-an, she became friendly with the imperial children, was given twice-monthly visiting privileges at the imperial palaces and five "national lady" titles. During the illness that led to her premature death, the emperor ordered her treated by imperial doctors (kuo-i ) (ibid., 1b).

Most interesting, however, were Tzu-chen's private activities. Through her stress on her children's education, Tzu-chen is credited with the civilianizing of the family, for her two sons both received chin-shih degrees and had successful civil careers (ibid., 4b, 5b). She was a devout Taoist "whose only delight lay in the study of the Yellow Emperor and Lao-tzu" (ibid., 4a). With a monthly stipend from her titles, which at one point accumulated to ninety thousand cash, she was also a noted philanthropist, providing relief to the hungry during a famine, supporting more than one hundred poor families on land she owned, and, most remarkably, providing the dowries of eighty-three orphaned young women (ibid., 4a-b).

With her many activities and accomplishments, Chao Tzu-chen was hardly typical of even privileged clanswomen or wives of high officials. Assisted by her clan status, she was able to use the opportunities created by the war and resettlement of the court and, through her ability and the force of her character, to make a mark for herself in Lin-an society of the 1130s. Still, one might ask how it was that she avoided the kinds of marital problems that we have seen above. That her husband was away at war (in all he fought in more than one hundred engagements and eventually rose to command the capital army) and was thus seldom at home undoubtedly helped (Ch'ang et al. 4:3163-64). But even more important is that her successes did not interfere with her acting as a model wife and mother, at least in the eyes of her biographer. Tzu-chen is praised for her humble life—eating simple food and doing laundry—in the years before the war when her husband, though talented, was ill-humored and without official rank (HCCSC 41:2b). As we noted earlier, she is credited with directing her sons' education and commended for running a serious and proper household establishment (3a). Together with

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service to one's in-laws (which is not mentioned, perhaps because her father-in-law and his father both died early in the Jurchen war), these were the essential tasks of the Sung literati wife. As we shall now see, it was mainly for these activities that Southern Sung clanswomen were praised.

If Chao Tzu-chen could be said to represent the imperial clanswomen at their social and political apex, Lady Chao (no. 6; 1121-58) in an equally remarkable way might be said to represent them at their humblest. A sixth-generation descendent of T'ai-tsung and thus not a mourning kin, she became at the age of eighteen sui the second wife (chi-shih ) of Hung Shou-ch'ing, an official from a large and prominent Jao-chou family.

In any event, once with the Hungs, Lady Chao's good breeding, obedience, and equable behavior made her very popular in the large household, which had some thirty brothers and cousins in her husband's generation, and in time she became renowned in the community at large. Her biographer, Hung Kua (himself a cousin of Shou-ch'ing's), relates that for some thirteen years (until she was thirty) the Hungs feared she would be taken back by her family to be married to someone else. Then, when she was thirty-three, her father, who had just become magistrate of Lin-ch'uan county in Fu-chou, sent his younger brother with a beautiful carriage to fetch her from the Hungs, with the apparent intention of making a better match for her elsewhere. But Lady Chao angrily refused to go, saying, "With my mother-in-law elderly and two sons young and foolish, I dare not trouble my seniors. My parents with various schemes cannot suddenly take me away" (PCWC 75: 6b). Asking his leave, she went back into the house and thereafter devoted herself to Hung family affairs, passing on to others gifts sent by her clan relatives, keeping peace in the women's quarters, and, in particular, nursing her mother-in-law. After she collapsed while dining with her mother-in-law and died at the age of just thirty-eight, she was mourned by one and all. The next year, however, she was posthumously titled and buried in imperial clan tombs (ibid., 7b).

The Hungs' just fears of losing Lady Chao, whose marriage was perfectly valid and legal, points to the high-handedness of clan families and makes Lady Chao's passionate commitment to the Hungs, particularly to her mother-in-law, all the more striking. Indeed, in Hung Kua's eyes she assumes heroic proportions. Having praised her for sticking to her principles when her family tried to reclaim her (ibid., 6b), Hung closes the inscription by comparing her with Po Chi from the state of Sung in the Spring and Autumn period, who, as Sung was being conquered and the palace destroyed, refused to leave the palace without her governess (fu-mu ) and thus perished in the flames (ibid., 7b).^[23] Just as Po Chi was able to act morally despite living in a dissolute age, so Hung marvels that this imperial clanswoman was able to maintain her integrity at a time when arrogance and licentiousness were common in renowned and exalted families.

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This theme of virtue in spite of high birth runs like a refrain through many of the inscriptions:

Although born noble and proud, she was frugal not wasteful, respectful not reckless, living in a poor and simple manner. (no. 6; MLCM 6: 47a)

She was totally unlike the children of noble families. (no. 11; CLC 29: 431)

At the time of her marriage, the literati all said, "The wife is of a noble type; they will not necessarily be happy together." However, she was reverent in her wifely rituals; her in-laws praised her filiality; [in acting by] the code of feminine conduct she was serious; towards her [husband's] kinsmen she was respectful. (no. 16; HTHSTCC 158:13b)

She served her in-laws from dawn to dusk . . . People did not know [from her actions] that she had the nobility of a Heavenly clan. (no. 10; CCC 129:10b)

She was by nature noble and pure, without the bad habits of clanswomen. (no. 14; MCC 18:256)

We must take care to avoid assuming that all or even most clanswomen were like those described above. We are after all dealing with the inscriptions of the few clanswomen who for one reason or other had impressed their contemporaries. Besides, phrases such as "the bad habits of clanswomen" could have arisen either from problems families had had with clanswomen as marriage partners or from anticlan bias among the elite. Whichever the case, this evidence is revealing of contemporary attitudes about how married clans-women should behave. They should not be spoiled, they should cheerfully fulfill their roles as wives and daughters-in-law, and they should devote themselves frugally and ascetically to promoting the fortunes of their new families, even when their husbands were leading cultured and leisured lives as private scholars (see, for example, CCC 129:10b-12a). To cite one last example, Chao Ju-i's (no. 13) husband, Wang Meng-lung, described their life while he was a struggling examination candidate (he received his chin-shih in 1208) in these terms:

I went through the successes and failures of the examinations no less than ten times, and each time was away from her for a year. [I would return] to find my sons named, my daughters nurtured and suddenly grown up, and I did not yet even know them. But this is just the norm for the wives of literati. Lady Chao forgot that she was a noble imperial clanswoman and delighted in being the wife of a poor literatus. (SHWC 25:11a)

Chao Ju-i's life was a far cry from that of the great ladies of the Northern Sung or of Chao Tzu-chen. It probably reflects the humble circumstances of her own family as much as her husband's, but that is just the point. In the Southern Sung most clan families had declined to modest, though still elite, status and had privileges, but generally not the influence, that followed from

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close ties to the emperor and court. For clanswomen to prosper in these changed circumstances, they would have to adopt the attitudes and life-styles of the literati culture, which was coming into its own during the Sung. Although many, perhaps most, of the clanswomen and men may have persisted in their anachronistically aristocratic ways—thus their bad reputation—these women and their biographers pointed the way to the future and in so doing provided a resolution for the tension between the inequalities of rank and gender mentioned above. That the resolution unequivocally affirmed the subordination of women was perhaps only to be expected in a culture in which male achievement was at once essential, yet also in doubt, for their families' fortunes.

Conclusion

In her essay for this volume, Jennifer Holmgren has characterized the Sung as having achieved "a stable and equitable balance of power between the major parties," a balance that contrasts with both the imposing power of the emperor's affinal kin from the Han through T'ang and their powerlessness in the Ming. This finding accords well with the imperial clanswomen considered in these pages. We see on the one hand great dynastic concern for clan marriage relations and a willingness to support the status and honor of the clanswomen through dowries and official titles, even when their relationship to the throne was no longer a mourning one. On the other hand, we see an insistence that they conform to the Confucian norms of filial obedience to their husbands and in-laws, despite their high status.

The most remarkable feature of the Sung clanswomen, however, is to be found, not in balance, but in change. The imperial princesses of the eleventh century were a world apart from the literati-wife clanswomen of the thirteenth. The reasons for this change were numerous. The maturation and social leveling of the imperial clan over time meant that clan members were increasingly likely to be related to the emperor only distantly. This trend was accentuated by the relative infertility of the Southern Sung emperors, which reduced the numbers of close kin. The fall of the Northern Sung gave those clansmen who managed to survive the turmoils of the Jurchen invasion and escape to the south an unprecedented access to government posts. Their families thus had an entrée into local elite society that would otherwise have been unthinkable. Moreover, the shift in the imperial marriage pool from the military elite to the scholar-official bureaucratic elite further decreased the social distance between the imperial clan and local, predominantly literati, elite society.

This essay has not addressed the issue of the declining status of women during the Sung (see, for example, Yao 1983:75-104) and whether it was responsible for the subservience that characterized the exemplary clans-

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women treated here. One reason for this omission is that there is considerable debate over just how much of a decline actually occurred during the Sung. A great deal of evidence suggests they were much better off than they were to be in the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties in their legal status, marriage practices, and the popularity of widow remarriage and foot binding (see Ebrey 1981, 1984b, and her essay in this volume). The most compelling argument for the decline thesis is that, with the fall of the aristocratic social order of the Six Dynasties-T'ang period and the rise of an examination-centered elite society during the Sung, in which male achievement was considered as essential to the maintenance of the patrilineal kinship group, the woman's roles of servant, nurturer, and loyal supporter of the patriline, even in widowhood, received renewed emphasis, especially by the neo-Confucian thinkers.

The general decline in status for women is not necessarily connected to the roles of the married imperial clanswomen. Ellen Soullière has shown for the Ming, when the subordination of women was certainly more marked than in the Sung, that the husbands of imperial princesses were deliberately drawn from inconsequential families and that they were expected to be ritually and behaviorally subordinate to the wives. Gender, however important, clearly took second place to the dynasty's determination to minimize the potential power of the affinal kin.

Because elite families commonly provided husbands for both princesses and clanswomen, the question of hypogamy vs. gender was a live issue during the Sung, particularly for the clanswomen for whom the hypogamy was not so marked. That their circumstances were necessarily more humble than those of their Northern Sung predecessors was a result of changes in the imperial clan; that their new ideal was that of the uncomplaining, self-sacrificing literati wife can be seen to reflect changes in the gender roles of elite society at large.

Appendix: Princesses and Clanswomen Cited

1. An-k'ang commandery lady

(1168-1205), married Lo Liang-ch'en . (SS 248:8789)

2.An-te imperial lady

, daughter of Hui-tsung, married Sung Pang-kuang . (SS 248:8783)

3. Lady Chao (1009-68), commandery lady, married Hsiang Ch'uan-fan

(1010-74) of K'ai-feng. (YCC 21:16a-18a)

4. Lady Chao (fl. 1060), titled Yen-kuo great senior princess

and later Ch'en-kuo great senior princess , daughter of Jen-tsung, married Li Wei of K'ai-feng. (SMCTI 33:2b-8a; SS 248:8776-77)

5. Lady Chao (fl. 1094), titled T'ang-kuo senior imperial princess

, married Han Chia-yen of An-yang hsien

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, Hsiang-chou (Ho-pei-hsi). (SMCTI 33:8b-10b; SS 248:8780)

6. Lady Chao (1091-1116) of Ju-chou

(Ching-hsi-pei), married Hao Chen of Lo-yang (Wu Su, "Tsu-ch'i Chao-shih muchih," in MLCM 6:47a)

7. Chao Tzu-chen

(1097-1140), titled Yang-kuo fu-jen , married Yang Ts'un-chung (1102-22) of Tai-chou (Ho-tung-lu). (HCCSC 41:la-6b).

8. Lady Chao (1121-58), second wife of Hung Shou-ch'ing

of Jao-chou (Chiang-nan-hsi). (PCWC 75:8b-6b)

9. Lady Chao (d. 1170), titled proper lady, married Kuan Chien

of Fu-chou (Chiang-nan-hsi). (ECHC 4:5b-6b)

10. Lady Chao (1153-90), married Wang Fu

of Chi-chou (Chiang-nan-hsi). (CCC 129:10b-12a)

11. Lady Chao (twelfth century), married Hsu Shih

of Wu-chou (Liang-che-tung). (CLC 29:431)

12. Lady Chao (1158-1213), titled peaceful lady, married Yuan Jen

of Ming-chou (Liang-che-tung). (HCC 21:17a)

13. Chao Ju-i

(1183-1221) of Ch'ih-chou (Chiang-nantung), titled child nurturess, married Wang Meng-lung (1208 chin-shih ) of T'ai-chou (Liang-che-tung). (SHWC 25:11a-12a)

14. Chao Hsi-i

(1177-1235) of T'ai-chou (Liang-che-tung), titled proper lady, married Yuan Fu of Ming-chou (Liang-che-tung). (MCC 18:256-57)

15. Chao Ju-chieh

(1199-1249) of Ch'üan-chou (Fu-chien), titled peaceful lady, married Ch'en Tseng (1200-1266) of Hsing-hua chün (Fu-chien). (HTHSTCC 154:4b-5b)

16. Chao Pi-shan

(1188-1260) of Ch'üan-chou (Fu-chien), titled child nurturess, married Fang Ta-yü (1181-1234) of Hsing-hua chün (Fu-chien). (HTHSTCC 158:13b-15a)

17. Chao Shan-i

(1216-43) of Ch'üan-chou (Fu-chien), titled child nurturess, married Ch'iu Shuang of Ch'üan-chou. (HTHSTCC 150:17b-19a)

18. Chao Ch'ung-yü

(1206-58), titled child nurturess, married Lo Chin (1196-1266) of Hung-chou (Chiang-nan-hsi). (HTHSTCC 158:9a-10b)

19. Ch'en-kuo princess

(d. 1117), Che-tsung's daughter, married Shih Tuan-li. (SS 248:8781)

20. Ch'en-kuo great senior princess

(d. 999), T'ai-tsu's daughter, married Wei Hsien-hsin (946-1014) of Wei-chou (Ho-pei-hsi). (SS 248:8772-73)

21. Ch'eng-te imperial lady

, Hui-tsung's daughter, married Hsiang Tzu-fang . (SS 248:8785)

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22. Chia-te imperial lady

, Hui-tsung's daughter, married Tseng Yin . (SS 248:8783)

23. Ch'in Lu-kuo Hsien-mu Ming-i great senior princess

(1048-1133), Jen-tsung's daughter, married Ch'ien Ching-chen of Hang-chou , (Liang-che-hsi). (SS 248:8777)

24. Ch'in-kuo K'ang-i senior princess

(d. 1164), Che-tsung's daughter, married P'an Cheng-fu of Ho-nan. (SS 248:8782)

25. Ch'in-kuo great senior princess

(d. 973), T'ai-tsu's younger sister, married first Mi Fu-te , then Kao Huai-te (926-82) of Chen-ting fu (Ho-pei-hsi). (SS 248:8771-72)

26. Ching-kuo great senior princess

(d. 1051), T'ai-tsung's daughter, married Li Tsun-hsü (988-1038) of Lu-chou (Ho-tung). (SS 248:8774-75)

27. Chou-han princess

(1240-61), Li-tsung's daughter, married Yang Chen of Yen-ling . (SS 248:8789-90)

28. Ch'ung-te

imperial lady (d. 1120), Hui-tsung's daughter, married Ts'ao Shih of Chen-ting fu (Ho-pei-hsi). (SS 248:8784)

29. Han Wei-kuo great senior princess

, Ying-tsung's daughter, married Chang Tun-li of K'ai-feng. (SS 248:8780)

30. Hsien-te

imperial lady, Hui-tsung's daughter, married Liu Wen-yen . (SS 248:8785)

31. Hsu-kuo senior princess

(d. 1122), Shen-tsung's daughter, married P'an I of Ta-ming fu (Ho-pei-tung). (SS 248:8781)
32. Hsu-kuo great senior princess (d. 990), T'ai-tsung's daughter, married Wu Yuan-i (962-1011) of T'ai-yuan fu (Ho-tung). (SS 248:8773)

33. Hsün-te imperial lady

, Hui-tsung's daughter, married. T'ien P'i . (SS 248:8785)

34. Ju-fu imperial lady

(d. 1141), Hui-tsung's daughter, married Hsu Huan . (SS 248:8785)

35. Jung-te imperial lady

, Hui-tsung's daughter, married Ts'ao Sheng . (SS 248:8783)

36. Lu-kuo great senior princess

(d. 1009), T'ai-tsu's daughter, married Shih Pao-chi (954-1010) of K'ai-feng. (SS 248:8772)

37. Mao-te imperial lady

, Hui-tsung's daughter, married Ts'ai T'iao of Hsing-hua chün (Fu-chien). (SS 248:8783)

38. Shun-te imperial lady

, Hui-tsung's daughter, married Hsiang Tzu-i . (SS 248:8785)

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39. T'an-kuo Hsien-hsiao senior princess

(d. 1108), Shen-tsung's daughter, married Wang Yü . (SS 248:8781)

40. Wei Ch'u-kuo

great senior princess (d. 1085), Ying-tsung's daughter, married Wang Shih-yueh (1044-1102) of Lo-yang (Ho-nan). (SS 8779)

41. Wei-kuo great senior princess

(d. 1008), T'ai-tsu's daughter, married Wang Ch'eng-yen of Liao-hsi , then Lo-yang . (SS 248:8772)

42. Wei-kuo great senior princess

(d. 1080), Ying-tsung's daughter, married Wang Shen of T'ai-yuan fu (Ho-tung). (SS 248:8779-80)

43. Yang-kuo

great senior princess (d. 1033), T'ai-tsung's daughter, married Ch'ai Tsung-ch'ing of Ta-ming fu (Ho-pei-tung). (SS 248:8773-74)

44. Yen Shu-kuo great senior princess

(d. 1112), Jen-tsung's daughter, married Kuo Hsien-ch'ing . (SS 248:8778)

45. Yen-kuo great senior princess

(d. 1083), Jen-tsung's daughter, married Ts'ao Shih of Chen-ting fu (Ho-pei-hsi). (SS 248:8778)

46. Yung-kuo great senior princess

, T'ai-tsung's daughter, married Wang I-yung of T'ai-yuan fu (Ho-tung). (SS 248:8774)

Glossary

an-jen

Chang-i huang-hou (Chang-i empress)

Chao

Chao Chiung

Chao K'uang-yin

Chao Shen

Chao shih (Lady Chao)

Chao T'ing-mei

Che-tsung

Ch'en Chün-ch'ing

Ch'en shih (Lady Ch'en)

Ch'eng I

Ch'eng-chieh-lang

Ch'eng-hsin-lang

chi-shih

Ch'i-chou

chia-ti

chiang

Chiang-nan

Chiang-nan-tung

Chiang-shih-lang

chien

Ch'ien shih (Lady Ch'ien)

chin-shih

ch'ing

chiu-li

Chou Pi-ta

chu-wen

chü-jen

chüan

Ch'üan-chou

chün-chu

fang-lang

Fang Ta-ts'ung

fei shih-tsu chih chia

fei t'an-mien nü i shu-hsing chih fa

feng

Fu-chien

Fu-chou (Fu-chien)

fu-ma tu-wei

fu-mu

Han Ch'i

Han Chung-yen

Han Wei-kuo ta-chang kung-chu (Han Wei-kuo great senior princess)

Hang-chou

Hao Chen

Ho-nan

Ho-pei-hsi

Ho-pei-tung

Ho-tung

hsi-ch'in

Hsiang Min-chung

Hsiao-tsung

hsien-chu

Hsien-yüan lei-p'u

hsing-t'u-jen

Hsu Chieh-ch'ing

Hsu Huan

hsuan

Hsun-te ti-i (Hsun-te imperial lady)

Huai-nan-hsi

Hui-tsung

Hung-chou

i-chuang

i-jen

---

i-kuan shih-tsu

I-kuo kung-chu (I-kuo princess)

Jen-tsung

ju-jen

ju-mu

K'ai-feng

Kao-tsung

kuan

kuan-hu

kung-chu

kung-jen

kuo-fu-jen

kuo-i

kuo-t'i

Lang-chou

Lao-tzu

li-chiao

Li Shou

Li-tsung

liang

Liang-che-hsi

Liang-che-tung

Liang-ching Tsung-cheng-ssu

Liang Huai-chi

Liao-hsi

lien-chü

Lin-an

Lin-ch'uan

ling-jen

Liu Ch'iang-fu

Liu Shu

Lo-yang

Lu-kuo ta-chang kung-chu (Lu-kuo great senior princess)

Lu-ling

Nan-pan-kuan

nei-ch'en

onkeishugi

pai-shen-jen

Pan I

Pao Cheng

P'eng Ju-li

pan-ts'ai

Po Chi

pu hsiang-an

P'u-t'ien

P'u-wang (prince of P'u)

san-pan feng-chih

Shao-hsing fu

Shen-tsung

shih

shih-jen

shih-tsu

shih-ta-fu

Shih Tuan-li

shu-jen

so-t'ing-shih

Ssu-ch'uan

Ssu-ma Kuang

Su Hsun

sui

Sun Ti

ta-erh

Ta-tsung-cheng-ssu

Ta-t'ung

Ta-t'ung Chang

T'ai-tsu

T'ai-tsung

t'an-mien

Tien-chih

T'ien-chih

T'ien-sheng

Ts'ai Ching

Ts'ao-kuo kung-chu (Ts'ao-kuo princess)

Ts'ao Shih

tsung

Tsung-cheng-ssu

tsung-shih

Tun-tsung yuan

tzu-chi

wai-kuan

Wang An-shih

Wang Shen-ch'i

Wang Yü

wei-hsien wei-chia tsung-nü

Wei-wang (prince of Wei)

wu te yü fei shih-tsu chih chia wei hun-yin

---

Wu-yueh

Yang-kuo ta-chang kung-chu (Yang-kuo great senior princess)

Yang shih (Lady Yang)

yin

Yin-hsien

Ying-tsung

Ying-t'ien fu

Yü-tieh-so

Yuan Hsieh

yuan-sun-n ü

yung-yeh t'ien

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