Political Ecology Of Imperial Clansmen In Tang Dynasty

In Tang Dynasty, during the Period of Emperor Taizong(太宗)and Emperor Gaozong(高宗),as monarchs’relatives, imperial clansmen can no longer influence high political affairs normally and directly as in the past dynasties. But in their official careers, imperial clansmen can still get high level posts (usually reached to Rank Five,五品)easily and promptly, which also brought them privileges in both economy and politics. So, in this sense, they can still be named typical Medieval Nobles. Yet, owing to the maturity of bureaucracy and the demand for rational politics, imperial clansmen’s political privileges were also criticized by other officials. So in Emperor Xuanzong’s(玄宗)period, closer members of them were excluded and marginalized from normal politics, and after that, the rest of them were selected by measure of value based on bureaucracy such as political ability or military exploit. As for imperial clansmen’s commission, the period of Xuanzong was an important turning point in which the tradition formed in Wei&Jin and south&north Dynasties ended. And from that time on, imperial clansmen’s irrational interference towards bureaucratic operation had also been eliminated gradually, some of them began to bureaucratized.We should also attach importance to imperial clansmen’s own choice in getting official posts. In earlier period of Tang Dynasty, most of them took step into official careers through Menyin(门荫Protection of Sons), which was based on consanguinity. When it came to the middle period of Tang Dynasty, due to dramatical social mobility, especially after the development of imperial examinations(科举),scholar-bureaucrats(官僚士大夫)who were elected by examinations occupied most political political resources which were also shared by eunuchs and military officers, great changes happened in every field of Empire Tang, a developed bureaucratic society formed finally. Owing to this political ecology, imperial clansmen’s traditional way of getting official posts, such as Menyin, were obstructed. This impeled them into such a political plight that the emperors had to on the one hand conform to the development of bureaucracy and on other hand take some measures, such as granting them the title of Peiwei(陪位),to guarantee their basic interests in politics. But we also find that, to keep political status, some imperial clansmen took part in imperial examinations, or attached themselves to eunuchs and military officers. In one word, part of the imperial clansmen mentioned above were competing fairly with common courtiers to keep their political status in bureaucratic system. In this process, some imperial clansmen were integrated into bureaucratic system, and at the same time their political image were transforming from typical nobles to purer scholar-bureaucrats as well.From articles of law and some cases, we can find that in early period of Tang Dynasty,the well-ranked titles of nobility for imperial clansmen were generally inherited from North Zhou Dynasty, titles of Qingwang(亲王Imperial Prince) and Junwang(郡王,Commandery Prince) were limited strictly in Gaozu’s(高祖)offspring, distant clansmen were granted lower titles similar to common meritorious statesmen. In the period of Taizong and Gaozong, the system of granting titles of nobility was established completely and operated strictly. Due to the persecution in Empress Wu’s(武则天)era, this system was destroyed. Then in Zhongzong(中宗)’s restoration, this system was rebuilt and enhanced, imperial clansmen’s titles were granted diffusely and irregularly. This phenomenon also reflected that imperial clansmen’s political influence was rising transiently. Yet in the era of Kaiyuan(开元),newly enthroned Xuanzong restrained this trend by reassigning imperial clansmen’s titles and standardizing the inheriting procedure of titles. At the same time we may also find that imperial clansmen’s noble titles were not inherited regularly, whether and when a clansman can get the title from his ancestor largely depended on the emperor’s will. Their privileges adhered to noble titles were also deprived.In Wei&Jin and South&North Dynasties or even the earlier period of Tang, imperial clansmen who owned high noble titles can get high official positions easily, titles based on noble identity guaranteed the owners’dominant position in bureaucracy. While with the change of related institution mentioned above, we find the correspondence between imperial clansmen’s official position and titles changed too. After the period of Xuanzong, especially in latter Tang Dynasty, correspondence between official position and noble title was disappearing gradually, in this period imperial clansmen with high titles usually cannot get high official posts, illustrious and influential imperial clansmen usually obtained titles linked to their personal opportunities or political abilities but not to clan-identity. Actually, this phenomenon reflect the change of political ecology and the social differentiation among imperial clansmen:since lack of political quality, some of them were marginalized in politics, their high titles of nobility cannot bring them high official posts; oppositely, the other clansmen’s noble titles linked to previous high official posts show that they had been merged with the bureaucratic system successfully and the characteristic of clan-identity in their titles was receding.