The Research On The Enfeoffment And Inheritance Of Marquises In The Western Han Dynasty

The marquises are the important component of the knighting in the Western Han Dynasty, and there were more than 800 marquises altogether. The rising and falling alternately of these marquises was not only the manifestations of honor or disgrace and prosperity or decline of the marquises'family but also was the reflection of political changing situation in the Western Han Dynasty. This article that bases on the related literature is divided into three parts to make a analysis of the marquises' enfeoffment and inheritance of Western Han Dynasty, and discusses its relationship with the political configuration of Western Han Dynasty.The first part mainly elaborates the standard of the enfeoffment of marquises in the Western Han Dynasty. This part divides the standard into three kinds that including rewarding merit, the need of politics and to the relatives of the imperial clan through inspecting the reason of the enfeoffment of marquises and the object of enfeoffment. This part also lists the concrete standard in each kind, and discusses the political background which is product of each kind of standard.The second part mainly analyzes the evolution of the policy of the marquises in the Western Han Dynasty. This part divides the Western Han Dynasty into four times according to the time sequence, and seeks in the marquises policy characteristic in various times, and unifies the historical development tendency to explain the immanent cause of these characteristics. At the beginning of Han Dynasty the emperors needed to depend upon the strength of the marquises entitled for merit to consolidate the political power, along with the need of strengthens the imperial authority, the marquises entitled for merit declines gradually, but the marquises who were relatives of queens rapidly rises, the quantity of the marquises who were kings'sons also increases sharply through"favors extending".The third part mainly elaborates the inheritance system of marquises in the Western Han Dynasty. In the Western Han Dynasty, the inheritance principle that the heir must be the marquis'son followed strictly. The designation of the marquises' heritor must be approved by the government, and the heritor must get the official inherit title through the prescriptive procedure. In addition, to some marquises that were abolished, the government also continues their lineage through re-enfeoffment or Shao Feng.