A study on the marriage between the Yuan clan of the Northern Wei Dynasty and the "Eight Surnames of Xunchen".
Text |Ma Zhiqiang**Datong**
The Xianbei Tuoba clan, which established the Northern Wei regime, had the courage to forge ahead, dared to challenge and break with the old Xi customs of the traditional nomads, and adhered to the consistent pace of Sinicization reform, which provided extremely valuable lessons for the feudalization of various ethnic minority regimes in the future. The imperial marriage represented by the Yuan clan of the imperial family, in addition to the general royal significance, has the innate color and characteristics of ethnic integration. As the Yuan clan of the Northern Wei Dynasty royal family with a special identity, their marriage is exemplary and imitative, guiding the marriage trend of the whole society, and also playing a role in fueling the tide of national integration.
The picture shows Ma Zhiqiang interviewing during the investigation of the Gaxian Cave site.
The marriage of the Yuan clan of the Northern Wei Dynasty had a huge and far-reaching impact on the entire social life. The eight surnames of Xunchen refer to the eight aristocratic groups of Xianbei ethnic minorities in the Northern Wei Dynasty, which are "descended from Taizu (Tuoba Jue), honored in the world, and reigned as princes, and can be known", namely Mu (Qiu Muling), Lu (Buliu Gu), He (Helan), Liu (Dugu), Lou (He Lou), Yu (Don't be Yu), Wei (Wei Chi), Ji (Su Xi), they have four surnames together (four surnames, referring to the northern Lu, Cui, Zheng, Wang and other wealthy families), we will call them the Hu Gaomen surname, and they have the same privileges as the northern Gaomen surname.
The Hu Gaomen surname was formed and developed in the Pingcheng period of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and it can also be said that they are the same as the ten surnames of the imperial family represented by the Xianbei Tuoba clan (Yuan), we can see them as the people of the same nationality, and they are the main marriage objects of the imperial Yuan clan in the Pingcheng period.
From the historical books and epitaphs, we have found a total of 64 cases of marriage between the Yuan family and the eight surnames of the lord, of which 22 cases are Mu (including 1 case of secret marriage), accounting for 34 of the total4%；There were 7 cases in Yu's family, accounting for 109%；There were 6 cases in Lu's family, accounting for 94%；There were 5 cases in He's family, accounting for 78%；14 cases in Liu, accounting for 219%；8 cases of Wei, accounting for 125%；There were 2 cases in Ji's family, accounting for 31%。In terms of quantity, Mu ranks first, followed by Liu, Wei, Yu, Lu, He and Ji, and there are no cases of marriages between Knowles and Yuan among the eight surnames of Xunchen.
In terms of the relationship with the emperors alone, Emperor Xianming married He Ye's goddaughter in order to give birth to Empress He and give birth to Taizu;Taiwu Tao married the He family and gave birth to Tuoba Huang. Tuoba Jue married Liu's daughter, for Xuanmu Empress Liu, gave birth to Princess Huayin, and later gave birth to Taizong;and Liu Nu's true sister. Emperor Xuanwu Yuan Ke married Yu Jinnu for Queen Yu. The He, Liu, and Yu clans can be counted as the first level of the marriage case between the Yuan family and the eight surnames of Xunchen.
The picture shows Ma Zhiqiang inspecting the Qijia Cultural Museum.
According to historical events, these three are further divided into two categories;First, the marriages of the He family and the Liu family and the Yuan family all occurred in front of or at the beginning of the Tuoba Dingdu Pingcheng, and the tribal color of these marriages is relatively strong, or most of the marriages are still in the stage of non-feudal regimes, to put it bluntly, the Tuoba clan is not an emperor in the formal sense, so the He clan and the Liu clan are not considered descendants in the strict sense. This point is clearly recorded in the Book of Wei. Such as the dedication of the Ming Empress He, the father of the wild gan, the eastern adult. Later, he was elected to the East Palace with Rongyi. On July 7, the 34th year of the founding of the People's Republic of China (371), the birth of Taizu Tuoba Jue was born in the north of Shenhe. And his father, Emperor Xianming Tuoba Wei, has been in the spring of this year, due to the rebellion of the eldest grandson Jin, he drew his sword to the throne, and was injured and threatened. Summer and May, Xu, and then chased. At this time, Emperor Xianming Tuoba Wei did not pass the throne at all, and the He family did not become the queen, and the He family was not a descendant in the strict sense. Liu is similar. Second, the marriage between the Yu family and the Yuan family mostly occurred after the relocation of the capital to Luoyang, and there are two reasons for this, one is that although the Yu family, one of the eight surnames of Xianbei Lords, is ranked last in the middle of the eight surnames, but when Emperor Xiaowen was the emperor, the two surnames of Mu and Lu, who were the heads of the eight surnames, all participated in the rebellion against the relocation of the capital and the reform of Sinicization, but Yu Lie was loyal, and Yu Lie's younger brother Yu Jinnu was established as the queen of Emperor Xuanwu, and her position was prominent. Yuan Yu, as the younger brother of Emperor Xuanwu, accepted the sister of Queen Yu as a concubine, which is not only a good family, but also can "marry the good of the two clans";The second is that the Yu family can judge the situation, actively support the relocation of the capital and the reform of sinicization, and can ban the world from traveling. Yu's self-esteem, the successive generations of nobles, one queen, four gifts, three leaders, two Shangshu Ling, three founding princes. This is unique in the marriage of the eight surnames of the lords after the relocation of the capital to Luoyang, in fact, this is one of the main reasons why we put the Yu family in the first group.
The second level of the marriage between the Yuan family and the eight surnames of the lord is the marriage between the uncle and nephew of the Yuan family and the Mu family. There were 22 intermarriages between the Yuan and Mu families. Since the beginning of Mu Guan, there have been 12 princesses. The most significant feature of the marriage between the Yuan family and the Mu family is as stated in the "Epitaph of Yuan Luoshen", the Yuan and Mu "two families are married, like brothers, and the brocade is shining, and the crown reflects each other." "All 12 cases of marriage with the princess were before the capital was moved to Luoyang, which was related to the Sinicization policy of the Xianbei Tuoba Department.
Xianbei Tuoba Department in the Qianluo before, has been pursuing the tribal endogamy system, with the Central Plains, the unification of the north, the need for the support of the Han scholars and the participation of the first administration, so they actively Xi learn from the Han scholars, and began a large-scale, all-round, thorough Sinicization movement. Among them, the change of marriage policy is also one of the most important ways and contents. In particular, Emperor Xiaowen was not only satisfied with the royal family name and marrying the high-ranking families, but tried to push this marriage relationship to a wider level. According to the "Book of Wei: Gaozu Ji I", in the second year of Emperor Xiaowen Taihe (476), the edict of Xia and May said: "The royal family and the families of the nobles and scholars are not only clans, but also non-similar marriages. The first emperor personally invented the edict and forbade it, but the people were Xi and still did not change it. The old texts of the present charter, the pre-emptive system, and the laws and decrees of the authorship will always be established. The offender will be judged as a violator". In the seventeenth year of Taihe (493), it was reiterated that "all households who support them are not allowed to marry the scholars", which fully shows that the gate valve system of the Northern Wei Dynasty, with hierarchical marriage as an important content, is far from being an ordinary political measure, but has become a political system with a certain legal guarantee.
The picture shows Ma Zhiqiang inspecting the Tuoba Xianbei History Museum.
In order to strictly enforce the rank of scholars in marriage, and mainly to combine the Hu and Han nobles through marriage, Emperor Xiaowen first accepted the daughters of Cui, Lu, Zheng, Wang, and Li of the northern Han clan as concubines, "The Wei lord Yazhong clan, with the four surnames of Fan Yang Lu Min, Qinghe Cui Zongbo, Xingyang Zheng Xi, and Taiyuan Wang Qiong, was pushed by the crown, and his daughter was used as a harem." Li Chong in Longxi saw Ren with his talents, and he was a noble ,...... in the courtThe emperor also took his daughter as his wife. "In the twentieth year of Taihe (496), at that time, the kingdom should take the gate of the eight clans and the Qing Dynasty, and the king of Xianyang took the city king to serve as the household, which was deeply responsible for the ancestors. Among the six concubines, except for the Mu family, who are from the "eight surnames of Xunchen", the rest are all from the "four surnames" of the Han people. These six imperial brothers all had wives in the past, and Emperor Xiaowen asked them to reduce the former wives to concubines, and remarry the daughters of the Han family as concubines. This restriction on the selection of the concubines of the kings of the clan to marry the family affected the emperor in the future, until the Xuanwu Dynasty changed after the ruling Empress Dowager Hu because of her humble background, and deliberately "suppressed grievances" when preparing the harem for the emperor Yuan.
The third level of the marriage between the Yuan family and the eight surnames of the Xun family is the marriage of the Lu family, the Wei family, and the Ji family. Their marriage with the Yuan clan is inferior to the first two categories in terms of both the relationship between the imperial family and the quantity, so we put them in the same category.
After the two Jin Dynasty, the Han scholars paid attention to nothing more than the words "marriage" and "eunuch". As far as marriage is concerned, pay attention to the family background, and the difference between the scholars and the family is like a world apart. The Tuoba aristocracy of the gate valve also accepted this concept of marriage of the Han scholars, and the choice of a son to marry and choose a son-in-law paid attention to the family. In this way, the children of the Han Gaomen have become the best choice of objects. On the other hand, the deepening of feudalization, especially the advocacy of Emperor Xiaowen to speak Han and wear Han clothes, etc., narrowed the psychological gap between ethnic groups, and the Han scholars no longer regarded the Tuoba Department as "Yidi", and were willing to marry the Tuoba nobles. As a result, the marriage phenomenon between the Yuan clan and the Han scholars continued to increase, reaching a peak by the time of Emperor Xiaowen and Emperor Xuanwu.
The marriage relationship between the Yuan family and the eight surnames of the Xunchen mainly reflects the marital status of the upper nobles of Tuoba Xianbei, of course, these marriages are more closely related to politics, and almost all of them have strong political overtones. As the representative of the northern scholars, the Han clan is the same as the southern clan, and the strict identity endogamy system is also practiced. With the reform of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty as the boundary, before this, the Han family married and attached great importance to the prestige of the family and refused to marry with the Hanmen and minority ruling groups. After that, the Sinicized minority ruling group joined the marriage circle of the Han ethnic group, and formed a stable Hu and Han ruling group with marriage as a link, which was the heyday of the Han ethnic power in the north. After the Northern Wei Dynasty, the ruling class of Hu and Han, who came from humble backgrounds, entered the marriage circle of the Han clan by virtue of their power, and the boundary between Shishu and non-marriage was broken, and the identity endogamy system began to disintegrate.
As far as ethnic integration is concerned, among the eight surnames of Xunchen, the only one who does not belong to the Xianbei nationality is the Liu family, the Liu family is from the Dugu family, and the Dugu family belongs to the Xiongnu or the Xiongnu Tu tribes, and among the 64 marriages between the Yuan family and the eight surnames of Xunchen that we listed, the Liu family occupies 14 cases, accounting for 219%, up to 1 5 strong, which can be said to be a pure fusion of two peoples;In addition, if Emperor Taiwu Tuoba Tao's mother is the Ye Du family, the daughter of a Han scholar, he has at least 50% Han blood;Emperor Xianwen Tuoba Hong's mother is the Han Li family, and he also has the blood of the Han people in his body;Emperor Xiaowen Yuanhong's mother was from Zhongshan, and Yuanhong also had Han blood in his bodyAnother example is Emperor Xuanwu Yuan Ke, whose mother Gao should be a Korean, and he has at least a considerable amount of Korean blood. This fully shows that the marriage between the Yuan family, who has the blood of ethnic integration, and the eight surnames of Xunchen, who are also likely to have the blood of multi-ethnic integration, must be able to promote the integration of the Xianbei nationality and other ethnic groups, but this integration is hidden and limited compared with the relocation of the capital.
The picture shows Ma Zhiqiang inspecting the Qijia Cultural Museum.
Through the analysis of the above materials, we can draw the following conclusions.
1.The eight surnames of Xunchen were the most important marriage partners of the Yuan clan during the Pingcheng period, and the proportion of the children of the Mu clan was much higher than that of the children of other tribes, and it was the most fixed marriage group of the Yuan clan, which was representative to a certain extent. But we should also understand that this is mainly manifested in the situation before the Taihe restructuring and before the relocation of the capital to Luoyang;After the relocation, the number of marriages decreased sharply. As far as all 64 marriages are concerned, about 70% of them were before Qianluo and about 30% after Qianluo, which indicates that the marriage partners of the Yuan family after Qianluo were mainly Han Gaomen.
2.Among the marriage objects of the Yuan family and the eight surnames of Xunchen, the He, Liu and Mu clans with strong Xianbei tribal colors were the main ones in the early stage, and the children of the Yu clan and the Lu clan with a relatively high degree of sinicization were the main ones in the later period, and this is the reflection of Tuoba Xianbei's feudalism in the marriage relationship, and it is also related to the change of the marriage object of the Yuan clan after moving to Luo.
3.As Engels said: "Marriage is a political act, an opportunity to expand one's own power through new marriages, and it is the interests of the family lineage that play a decisive role, not the will of the individual." ”
The various changes in the marriage objects of the Yuan family and the eight surnames of the lords are also the reflection of the changes in the political interests of the Tuoba aristocracy in the marriage relationship, and also show that in the process of development, the Xianbei Tuoba Department paid attention to the identification of national identity, and did a lot of political and marriage practices, and made a useful attempt to forge a strong sense of national community, and achieved success.
The author is the editor-in-chief of Yungang Studies.
Text |Ma Zhiqiang Figure |Ren Suliang.