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House of Li

The House of Li (Chinese: 李; pinyin: Lǐ; Wade–Giles: Li) was the ruling house of the Western Liang dynasty and the Tang dynasty of China.

Family information

The Li family originated in the Longxi Commandery and had Han ethnic origins. They were also known as the Longxi Li lineage (隴西李氏), which included the famous Tang poet Li Bai. The Li family were members of the northwest military aristocracy prevalent during the Sui dynasty.[1][2]

According to the official records of Tang dynasty, the Li family was paternally descended from the famous Daoist sage Laozi (whose personal name was Li Dan or Li Er),[3] as well as the Qin Dynasty General Li Xin and the Han dynasty General Li Guang,[4][5] and Li Gao, the ethnic Han ruler of Western Liang dynasty. During the late Northern and Southern dynasties period, the Li family intermarried with Xianbei royalty when Li Bing (the ethnically Han father of the first Tang emperor) married the part-Xianbei Duchess Dugu (the daughter of prominent Xianbei general Dugu Xin).[6][7] Marriages between elite Han men and Xianbei princesses were common in this period, as the Northern Wei had arranged for Han elites to marry daughters of the Xianbei Tuoba imperial family since the 480s CE.[8] More than half of the Tuoba Xianbei princesses of the Northern Wei were married to Han men from the imperial families and aristocrats from the Southern dynasties, who had defected and moved north to join the Northern Wei.[9]

Portrait from the tomb of General Li Xian (504-569 CE).

The Khagans of the Yenisei Kyrgyz Khaganate also claimed Longxi Li ancestry, through descent from the Han dynasty general Li Ling. Li Ling, a grandson of Li Guang, had defected from the Han dynasty to the Xiongnu in the first century BCE.[4][10][11][12] For this reason, the Kyrgyz Khagan was recognized as a member of the Tang imperial family.[13][14]: 394–395  Emperor Zhongzong of Tang even said to the Kyrgyz that "Your nation and Ours are of the same ancestral clan (Zong). You are not like other foreigners."[15]: 126 

The Tang Imperial family was watched over by the Zongcheng si (宗正寺).[16] Other prominent members of the Longxi Li lineage from the Tang period included generals Li Jing and Li Jiongxiu, chancellors Li Yiyan, Li Kui, Li Wei, Li Fengji, and Li Zhaode, the official Li Zhongyan, and the poet Li Bai. The Tang Imperial Longxi Li lineage also included sub lineages like the Guzang Li (姑臧 ), from which Li Zhuanmei (李專美) came from, who served the Later Jin.[17]

During the Tang dynasty the Li family of Zhaojun (趙郡李氏), the Cui clan of Boling, the Cui clan of Qinghe, the Lu clan of Fanyang, the Zheng family of Xingyang (滎陽鄭氏), the Wang family of Taiyuan (太原王氏), and the Li family of Longxi (隴西李氏) were the seven noble families between whom marriage was banned by law.[18]

In more recent times, some scholars have speculated that the Tang imperial family might have modified its genealogy to conceal Xianbei heritage.[19] They cite as an example the Northern Zhou General Li Xian, who claimed descent from the Han general Li Ling, but whose tomb indicates that he had distant Xianbei ancestry.[20][21] There is however no direct evidence that the Tang imperial family carried out such actions.

Some of the Tang dynasty Imperial family's cadet branches ended up in Fujian. The branch founded by Li Dan (李丹) became prominent during the Song dynasty,[22] as did another founded by Li Fu (李富).[23] Descendants of the Tang Emperors now live in Chengcun village, near the Wuyi Mountains in Fujian.[24]

During the Later Jin dynasty of the Five Dynasties period, there were dukedoms (二王三恪) established for the descendants of the Northern Zhou, Sui, and Tang imperial families.[25]

The Hu family of Xidi are descended from Hu Shiliang, of Wuyuan, who was a descendant of Hu Changyi, a son of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang who was adopted by the Wuyuan Hu family.[26][27][28][29][30][31][32]

People

Family tree

See also

References

  1. ^ Ebrey, Patricia Buckley; Walthall, Anne; Palais, James B. (2006), East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, pp. 90–91, ISBN 0-618-13384-4
  2. ^ Adshead, S.A.M. (2004), T'ang China: The Rise of the East in World History, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 40–41, ISBN 1-4039-3456-8
  3. ^ Kenneth Scott Latourette (1934). The Chinese: their history and culture. Macmillan. p. 191.
  4. ^ a b c d Michael Robert Drompp (2005). Tang China And The Collapse Of The Uighur Empire: A Documentary History. BRILL. pp. 126–. ISBN 90-04-14129-4.
  5. ^ a b Victor H. Mair; Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt; Paul Rakita Goldin (2005). Hawai'i reader in traditional Chinese culture. University of Hawai'i Press. p. 376. ISBN 978-0-8248-2785-4.
  6. ^ Jonathan Karam Skaff (6 August 2012). Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors: Culture, Power, and Connections, 580-800. Oxford University Press. pp. 125–. ISBN 978-0-19-999627-8.
  7. ^ Jeroen Duindam; Tülay Artan; Metin Kunt (11 August 2011). Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires: A Global Perspective. BRILL. pp. 177–. ISBN 978-90-04-20622-9.
  8. ^ Rubie Sharon Watson (1991). Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society. University of California Press. pp. 80–. ISBN 978-0-520-07124-7.
  9. ^ Tang, Qiaomei (May 2016). Divorce and the Divorced Woman in Early Medieval China (First through Sixth Century) (PDF) (A dissertation presented by Qiaomei Tang to The Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of East Asian Languages and Civilizations). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University. pp. 151, 152, 153.
  10. ^ Veronika Veit, ed. (2007). The role of women in the Altaic world: Permanent International Altaistic Conference, 44th meeting, Walberberg, 26-31 August 2001. Vol. 152 of Asiatische Forschungen (illustrated ed.). Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 61. ISBN 978-3447055376. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  11. ^ Michael Robert Drompp (2005). Tang China and the collapse of the Uighur Empire: a documentary history. Vol. 13 of Brill's Inner Asian library (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 126. ISBN 9004141294. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  12. ^ Kyzlasov, Leonid R. (2010). The Urban Civilization of Northern and Innermost Asia Historical and Archaeological Research (PDF). Curatores seriei VICTOR SPINEI et IONEL CANDEÂ VII. Vol. The Urban Civilization of Northern and Innermost Asia Historical and Archaeological Research. ROMANIAN ACADEMY INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY OF IAȘI Editura Academiei Romane - Editura Istros. p. 245. ISBN 978-973-27-1962-6. Florilegium magistrorum historiae archaeologiaeque Antiqutatis et Medii Aevi.
  13. ^ Veronika Veit, ed. (2007). The role of women in the Altaic world: Permanent International Altaistic Conference, 44th meeting, Walberberg, 26-31 August 2001. Vol. 152 of Asiatische Forschungen (illustrated ed.). Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 61. ISBN 978-3447055376. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  14. ^ Michael R. Drompp (1999). "Breaking the Orkhon tradition: Kirghiz adherence to the Yenisei region after A. D. 840". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 119 (3): 390–403. doi:10.2307/605932. JSTOR 605932.
  15. ^ Michael Robert Drompp (2005). Tang China and the collapse of the Uighur Empire: a documentary history. Brill's Inner Asian library. Vol. 13. Brill. ISBN 9004141294.
  16. ^ John W. Chaffee (1999). Branches of Heaven: A History of the Imperial Clan of Sung China. Harvard Univ Asia Center. pp. 8–. ISBN 978-0-674-08049-2.
  17. ^ Chang Woei Ong (2008). Men of Letters Within the Passes: Guanzhong Literati in Chinese History, 907-1911. Harvard University Asia Center. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-674-03170-8.
  18. ^ Tackett, Nicolas Olivier (2006). THE TRANSFORMATION OF MEDIEVAL CHINESE ELITES (850-1000 C.E.) (Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences). COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. p. 67.f
  19. ^ Sanping, Chen (Nov 1996). "Succession Struggle and the Ethnic Identity of the Tang Imperial House". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Third Series. 6 (3): 379–405. doi:10.1017/S1356186300007793.
  20. ^ Wu, Mandy Jui-man (2004). "Exotic Goods as Mortuary Display in Sui Dynasty Tombs--A Case Study of Li Jingxun's Tomb". Sino-Platonic Papers. 142: 55.
  21. ^ Chen, Sanping (1996). "Succession Struggle and the Ethnic Identity of the Tang Imperial House". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 6 (3): 381. doi:10.1017/S1356186300007793. ISSN 1356-1863. JSTOR 25183243. The official histories compiled during the Tang had been subjected to much political doctoring in order to mask and conceal the imperial house's "barbarian" background. The newest proof is the recent archaeological discovery showing that another contemporary prominent Li clan, namely that of Li Xian, the Northern Zhou Grand General with the same Longxi ancestry claim, was in fact of unmistakable Tuoba Xianbei descent.
  22. ^ Hugh R. Clark (2007). Portrait of a Community: Society, Culture, and the Structures of Kinship in the Mulan River Valley (Fujian) from the Late Tang Through the Song. Chinese University Press. pp. 39–40. ISBN 978-962-996-227-2.
  23. ^ Hugh R. Clark (2007). Portrait of a Community: Society, Culture, and the Structures of Kinship in the Mulan River Valley (Fujian) from the Late Tang Through the Song. Chinese University Press. pp. 77–. ISBN 978-962-996-227-2.
  24. ^ "Past Glory Shines in Ancient Village". China Daily. December 9, 2002.
  25. ^ Ouyang, Xiu (5 April 2004). Historical Records of the Five Dynasties. Richard L. Davis, translator. Columbia University Press. pp. 76–. ISBN 978-0-231-50228-3.
  26. ^ "Xidi Village". ChinaTour.Net.
  27. ^ "China Xidi-Huangshan Xidi-Welcome To Xidi". China Xidi.
  28. ^ "Xidi village ancient village in the south of Anhui". China Escapade. Archived from the original on 2018-05-06. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  29. ^ "Xidi Village". Meet China. Archived from the original on 2018-05-06. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  30. ^ 周, 倩, ed. (2015-07-07). "Ancient Villages in Southern Anhui – Xidi and Hongcun". English Rednet.
  31. ^ "Two Beauties Below Yellow Mountain". China Digital Review. July 27, 2015.
  32. ^ "Ancient Villages in Southern Anhui - Xidi and Hongcun" (PDF). UNESCO World Heritage Centre. 2 December 2000.
  33. ^ Latourette 1934, p. 191.
  34. ^ Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1889). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland. Cambridge University Press for the Royal Asiatic Society. pp. 386–.