The
nobility of China were an important feature of
traditional social and political organization of the
Chinese civilization. While the
concepts of hereditary titles and noble families were featured as
early as the semi-mythical early historical period, a settled
system of nobility was established from the
Zhou Dynasty. In the subsequent millennia, this
system was largely maintained in form, with some changes and
additions, although the content constantly evolved.
The last,
well-developed system of noble titles was established under the
Qing
Dynasty
. In 1911, the overthrow of the imperial
system saw the dissolution of the nobility. Though some noble
families maintained their titles and dignity for a time, new
political and economic circumstances forced their decline. The fact
that most existing nobles were of the
Manchu
ethnicity, a ruling elite under the Qing dynasty, but an ethnic
minority like any other under the new Republic, resulted in minimal
popular recognition of their nobility. Today, the nobility as a
class is almost entirely dissipated in China, and only a very few
maintain any pretense or claim to noble titles, which are almost
universally unrecognized.
The Sovereign
The apex of the nobility is the Sovereign. The title of the
sovereign has changed over time, together with the connotations of
the respective titles.
In the earliest, semi-mythical age, the sovereign was titled either
huang (Chinese: 皇 huáng) or
di (Chinese: 帝 dì).
Together, these rulers were called the
Three Sovereigns and Five
Emperors.
- The King during the Xia and Shang dynasties called themselves
di (Chinese: 帝 dì)
- The
King during the Zhou dynasty was called Wang (Chinese: 王 or 國王;
wáng), was the title of the Chinese
head of state until the Qin dynasty. The title "Wang" should not
be confused with the common surname, which has no royal
implications. A King can be subordinate to an Emperor.
Although formally "The Son of Heaven," the power of the
emperor varied between different emperors and
different dynasties, with some emperors being absolute rulers and
others being figureheads with actual power in the hands of court
factions,
eunuchs, the bureaucracy or noble
families.
The title of emperor was usually transmitted from father to son.
Most often, the first-born son of the
empress inherited the office, failing which the post
was taken up by the first-born son of a
concubine or consort of lower rank, but this rule
was not universal and disputed succession was the cause of a number
of
civil wars. Unlike in
Japan, traditional Chinese political theory
allowed for a change in dynasty, and an emperor could be replaced
by a rebel leader. This was because a successful rebel leader was
believed to enjoy the mandate of heaven, while the deposed or
defeated emperor had lost favour with the gods, and his mandate was
over, a fact made apparent to all by his defeat.
It was generally not possible for a female to succeed to the
throne, so that in history of China there has only been one
reigning
empress, the
Empress Wu, whose reign
punctuated the
Tang dynasty. However,
there have been numerous cases in Chinese history where a woman was
the actual power behind the imperial throne (see
éminence grise).
Princehood and Peerage
Fengjian and Zongfa of the Zhou Dynasty
The social system of the
Zhou Dynasty
is sometimes referred to as the Chinese proto-
feudalism and was the combination of
Fengjian (Honors and Awards) and
Zongfa (Clan
Law).
Male aristocracies were classified into,
in descending order of rank:
- the nobles – Zhuhou (諸侯
pinyin zhū hóu),
- the gentlemen ministers (of the royal court) – Qing (卿
qīng),
- the gentlemen bureaucrats – Daifu
(大夫 dà fū)
- the yeomen – Shi (士 shì)
- the commoners – Shumin (庶民 shù
mín).
Fengjian (Honors and
Awards) divided the
noble class further
into (originally) five ranks. The sizes of troops and domains a
male noble would command would be determined by his rank of
peerage:
While before the
Han Dynasty a
peer with a place name in his title actually
governed that place, it had only been nominally true since. Any
male member of the nobility or
gentry
could be called a
gongzi (公子 gōng zǐ) (or
wangzi
(王子 wáng zǐ) if he is a son of a king, i.e.
prince).
Zongfa (宗法, Clan Law), which applied to all social
classes, governed the
primogeniture of
rank and succession of other
siblings. The
eldest son of the
consort would
inherit the title and retained the same rank within the system.
Other sons from the consort,
concubines
and
mistresses would be given
titles one rank lower than their father.
As time went by, all terms had lost their original meanings
nonetheless.
Qing (卿),
Daifu (大夫) and
Shi (士) became
synonyms of court
officials.
Physicians were often called
Daifu during the
Late
Imperial China. Referring to a male or self-reference of a male
as
Gongzi eventually became a way to raise one's
mianzi (refer to
Face
), and would indeed be considered flattery today.
Female Nobility
Titles of
female members of the aristocracies
varied in different dynasties and eras, each having unique
classifications for the spouses of the emperor. Any female member
excluding a spouse of an emperor can be called a
princess or
gongzhu (公主 gōng zhǔ), and
incorporated her associated place into her title if she had
one.
History
Before the
Qin dynasty,
Wang (
king) was the title
for the ruler of whole China. Under him were the
Zhuhou or
nobles, who were
the local warlords. They had the duty to support the
Zhou king during an emergency. In the
Spring and Autumn Period, the Zhou
kings had lost most of their powers, and the most powerful
Zhuhou became the
de facto ruler
of China. Finally, in the
Warring
States Period, most
Zhuhou declared themselves
Wang or kings, and regarded themselves as equal to the
Zhou king. After Zheng, king of the state of
Qin, later known as
Qin Shi
Huang, defeated all other
Wang and unified China, he
took a new title
Huangdi (
emperor).
Qin Shi Huang eliminated noble titles, as he sponsored
legalism and it believed in merit, not birth. He
forced all nobles to the capital, seized their land, turned them
into administrative districts with officials ruling them selected
for merit. After the demise of
Qin Er
Shi, the last Qin ruler to used the title
Huangdi (his
successor
Ziying used the title
King of Qin rather Emperor),
Xiang Yu styled himself Hegemon King of Western Chu
(Xichu Bàwáng 西楚霸王) rather than Emperor. Xiang Yu gave
King Huai of Chu II the title of
Emperor of Chu (楚義帝) or
The Righteous
Emperor of Southern Chu (南楚義帝) and awarded the rest of his
allies, including
Liu Bang, titles and a
place to administer. Xiang Yu gave Liu Bang the Principality of
Han, and he would soon replace him as the ruler of China.
The founder of the
Han Dynasty,
Liu Bang, continued to use the title
Huangdi. In order to appease his wartime allies, he gave
each of them a piece of land as their own "kingdom" (
Wangguo) along with a title of
Wang. He eventually killed all of them and replaced them
with members of his family. These kingdoms remained effectively
independent until the
Rebellion of the Seven States.
Since then,
Wang became merely the highest hereditary
title, which roughly corresponded to the title of
prince, and, as such, was commonly given to relatives
of the emperor. The title
Gong also reverted purely to a
peerage title, ranking below
Wang.
Those who bore such titles were entirely under the auspices of the
emperor, and had no ruling power of their own. The two characters
combined to form the rank,
Wanggong, grew to become
synonymous with all higher court
officials.
During the
Tang dynasty, nobles lost
most of their power to the
mandarins when
imperial examination replaced the
nine-rank system.
Subsequent dynasties expanded the hereditary titles further.
It should
be noted, however, that not all titles of peerage are hereditary,
and the right to continue the heredity passage of a very high title
was seen as a very high honour; at the end of the Qing
dynasty,
there were five grades of princes, amongst a
myriad of other titles. For details, see
Qing Dynasty nobility.
A few Chinese families enjoyed hereditary titles in the full sense,
the chief among them being the
Holy Duke
of Yen (the descendant of
Confucius);
others, such as the lineal descendants of
Wen Tianxiang, ennobled the Duke of Xingguo,
not choosing to use their hereditary title.
The Imperial Clansmen
consisted of those who trace their descent direct from the founder
of the Qing
dynasty
, and were distinguished by the privilege of wearing
a yellow girdle; collateral relatives of the imperial house wore a
red girdle. Twelve degrees of nobility (in a descending
scale as one generation succeeds another) were conferred on the
descendants of every emperor; in the thirteenth generation the
descendants of emperors were merged in the general population, save
that they retain the yellow girdle. The heads of eight houses, the
Iron-capped (or helmeted) princes, maintained their titles in
perpetuity by rule of
primogeniture in
virtue of having helped the
Manchu
conquest of China.
All titles
of nobility were officially abolished when China became a republic
in
1912. They were briefly revived under Yuan Shikai's
empire
and after Zhang Xun's coup. The
last emperor was allowed to keep his title but
was treated as a foreign monarch until the 1924 coup.
Manchukuo also had titles of nobility.
Other Historical Chinese Titles
Protector General (都護; Duhu) – See e.g.
Ban Chao.
List of people given peerage by Yuan Shikai
Yuan
Shikai resurrected the system, in his Empire of
China
Prince of the First Rank Wuyi (武義親王 Wǔyì qīn
wáng)
Dukes of the First Rank (一等公 Yī děng gōng)
Marquesses of the First Rank (一等侯 Yī děng hóu)
Counts of the First Rank (一等伯 Yī děng bó)
Viscounts of the First Rank (一等子 Yī děng zǐ)
Barons of the First Rank (一等男 Yī děng nán)
Baron of the Third Rank (三等男 Sān děng nán)
Styles for Foreign Monarchs
Traditional Chinese political theory held that "All lands under
Heaven belong to the emperor, all people under Heaven belong, are
subjects of the emperor." (普天之下，莫非王土;率土之濱,莫非王臣). Thus, a foreign
monarch would also be referred to as
Wang, implying that
one was inferior in rank and thus subject to the Chinese
Emperor.
In modern Chinese, a
king is referred to as
a
Wang, while an
emperor would be
referred to as
Huangdi. The king in those times were
referred to as the mandate of heaven.
Therefore Victoria of the United
Kingdom was styled Nü-Wang (Queen) of the United
Kingdom of Great
Britain
and Ireland
, and
Nü-Huang (Empress) of India
.
References
This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia
Britannica, which is in the public domain.
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