| This paper studies the emperor‘s family and marriage life in the Western Han Dynasty. Through the relationship between family members and in-laws, the paper shows the complex relationship between them and reveals the special nature of the political family life. The paper is mainly divided into four parts.The first part mainly talks about the relationship between the emperor and empresses, the emperor and the queen mother, and the queen mother and his empresses. The paper combs husband-wives, mother-child, and daughters-in-law relationships. Because the emperor has many wives, the paper studies the relation between wives' struggle and the intricate political interests. This part and the fourth part has important relationships, such as the queen mother's special position in the family and empress working as emperor in special situation in political system.The second part inspects the relationship between the emperor and his children, mainly the relationships between the emperor and crown, and between the emperor and other children. Prince is the fundamental of a country, which is the continuation of a home and an important political factor. So choosing crown prince and educating him is vital. The relationship between the emperor and crown prince is very delicate. They are father and son, and they also have political interests. How to maintain the balance between them is the core of its political problems. The Western Han Dynasty practices the lineal primogeniture system, so the struggle between princes becomes an important interior relation of family life. The emperor's daughter--the princess are distinguished women, who can be involved in politics, but in order to meet the political demands, they will also become the most helpless bride, who can be sacrifice of politics.The third part is about the relation between the emperor and the imperial clan. The imperial clan and the emperor have the same surname. In the patriarchal society, their relationship is an important political pillar of royal imperial forces. The emperor and the imperial clan's relationship is very complicated, and the blood relationship in the family is the basis. They depend on each other, and meanwhile they have the interest conflict between the central government and local government. When the emperor has no children, the emperor will appoint a closest kinship adoption, and he will be the crown prince. General imperial clan has important position too.The fourth part is the relationship between the emperor and in-laws. The consort clan is a special family blood group who can influence politics and has its unique advantage. Through the form, performance and influence of consorts' politics, this part mainly talks about the relationship between the emperor and consorts.As a special individual, whether the emperor has a stable marriage and family life is directly related to the political stability. Generally speaking, the core relationship in emperor's family life is couple relationship and parent-child relationship with the crown prince. The core relationship is dominant in family relations, whose change is very important and other family relationships will be affected by it more or less. In addition, in different background, core relationship may change. The change of the relationship between the emperor and the queen mother or the emperor and the empresses has a direct effect on consorts' interventions; the contradictory intensifies between central and local government is affected by the relationship between the emperor and imperial clan to a great extent. |
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