The inner court and politics in the Han empire
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In traditional Chinese historiography, the inner court—usually consisting of the palace women, imperial affines, eunuchs, and the emperor's favorites—is often depicted as the cause of political decay and blamed for the fall of dynasties. This narrative shows empathy with the bureaucrats who were in constant tension with the inner court in their attempt to exert more political influence. Using both transmitted texts and archaeological sources, this project examines the roles of the inner court in the politics of the Han empire (202 BC--220 AD) from the angles of space, gender, family, ideology, social networks, institution, and historical memory. It argues that the inner court, who exerted political influence because of their spatial and emotional closeness to the ruler, served as the ruler's personal power base against the outer court bureaucracy. While previous research has largely treated the inner court as an institution, this research shows that the inner court was primarily a space and individuals who were close to the ruler prior to its institutionalization. Decentering the literati's rhetoric, this research illuminates the political significance of gender, family, and social networks in Han politics. It thus revises the current paradigm of Chinese political history that highlights the bureaucracy and downgrades the inner court, presenting a picture of competing ideas of legitimacy and dynamic interactions among different groups. Its relational approach to imperial power also contributes to the comparative study of empires in world history.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2022; ©2022 |
| Publication date | 2022; 2022 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Li, Yunxin |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Lewis, Mark Edward, 1954- |
| Thesis advisor | Lewis, Mark Edward, 1954- |
| Thesis advisor | Lewis, Martin W |
| Thesis advisor | Sommer, Matthew Harvey, 1961- |
| Thesis advisor | Zhou, Yiqun, 1971- |
| Degree committee member | Lewis, Martin W |
| Degree committee member | Sommer, Matthew Harvey, 1961- |
| Degree committee member | Zhou, Yiqun, 1971- |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of History |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Yunxin Li. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of History. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2022. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/fm803xt9284 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2022 by Yunxin Li
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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