What is a prince?

Prince, the title of China's ancient imperial heir, was designated as the heir to the throne. It should be noted that the prince before Qin Shihuang cannot be called the Crown Prince, and only the prince in the imperial era can be called the Crown Prince.

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The legal heirs of emperors and princes in Shang and Zhou Dynasties were called princes or princes. In the Han Dynasty, both the emperor and the heir of the prince were called "Prince", but only the Crown Prince was called "Crown Prince". After the Han Dynasty, the heirs of princes were renamed as "Prince", and "Prince" became the unique title of the heir to the throne. The prince of feudal society, second only to the emperor, has the right to supervise the country and has officials of the Eastern Palace similar to the imperial court.

It should be pointed out that the "prince" is not an innate identity, but an identity given by the emperor. Only by "conferring" (see below) can you obtain the status of a prince.

Because of the different relationship between the canonized and the emperor, the titles similar to those of the prince are "grandson", "granduncle" and "granduncle". Most princes are sons of the emperor, and a few are nephews or adopted sons of the emperor. In the Yuan Dynasty, I was not familiar with Chinese etiquette, which led to the joke that my brother was my brother's "prince".

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The Crown Prince's Dress —— Q Edition of Daming Dress Map

In the feudal dynasty, the prince was second only to the emperor in the imperial court. (In fact, they are not as good as the Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager, but the harem cannot run politics. Most empresses and empresses have zero political rights, but there are no exceptions, such as Tang Gaozong Wuhou, Emperor Gaozu Lv Hou and Empress Dowager Cixi in the late Qing Dynasty.

The prince has his own East Palace, which is similar to a palace. The official configuration of the East Palace is completely modeled after the imperial system, and there is also a private guard "Prince Zhu Lu" (Tang system) similar to the emperor's imperial army. The wives and concubines of the Crown Prince, like the concubines of the emperor, have formal titles, such as Crown Princess, Good Brother, Good Yuan, Cheng Hui, Zhao Xun and Feng Yi.

Actual status:

The position of the prince is second only to that of the empress dowager, and higher than that of all officials of civil and military affairs and imperial clan ministers. After he ascended the throne of the emperor, he was above ten thousand people (the position of the emperor must not be lower than that of the empress dowager and empress dowager, but it was only misleading in film and television dramas. In addition, the emperor must never call himself a "son minister" in front of the queen mother, but he can only call himself "me" or "son" humbly, but he must call himself "me" in formal occasions.

In addition, the status of the prince is by no means lower than that of the concubines. Take the Tang and Song Dynasties as an example: even the highest-ranking imperial concubine in the harem has only one rank, that is, the title of prince. There is no distinction between a crown prince and a crown princess, so the status of a crown prince is not lower than that of anyone other than the emperor.

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The inheritance system in ancient China was the eldest son inheritance system, and women had no inheritance right. The principle of heirs is: "grow up upright", that is to say, the order of inheritance is the younger son first, and the eldest son first. Among the eldest son [the son born to the wife (queen)], the oldest is the first heir. If there is no eldest son, the middle-aged elder born to an illegitimate child (not the first son) is the heir. In another case, if Di Zi dies young, he will make his son his heir. For example, after the death of Prince Zhu Biao, Zhu Yuanzhang made his son Zhu Yunwen his great-grandson.

In addition to the principle of "stand on your own feet and grow up", there is also the principle of "stand on your own merits", that is, it depends on the virtue of your common sons. The most important thing is that the emperor "allocated money to love", that is, which son the emperor liked best, he was named prince. Although this method has existed in history, it is rare, and it is easy to trigger a power struggle in the imperial court.

The relationship between the prince and the emperor in history is extremely complicated and contradictory. On the one hand, the emperor needs an heir, but the existence of the heir will pose a certain threat to the imperial power. Because the crown prince has great power, he often conflicts with the emperor, resulting in being abolished or killed. For example, Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty abolished his capacity, Emperor Gaozu committed suicide because of witchcraft, and Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty abolished the prince. But the powerful crown prince will rebel and even kill the king because he is dissatisfied with the emperor's constraints. Such as Shao who was killed. On the other hand, because of coveting the position of the Crown Prince, the sons of the emperor often love each other and even fight with each other, which is more common.

Usually, due to the above reasons, it is rare for a crown prince to successfully establish a title and inherit the throne. With the continuous strengthening of the emperor's power, the power of the crown prince is weakening. But on the other hand, it is precisely because the power of the crown prince no longer poses a threat to the emperor, and the emperor has enough power to restrain his other sons, so there are more successful successors in the later period.

Because of the special and sensitive relationship between the prince and the emperor. Ministers must be careful when dealing with related affairs. They dare not disobey the emperor's orders and are unwilling to offend the prince.

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The prince called the emperor a "child minister" and his subordinates a "king" or a "prince", which was not specific before the Qin Dynasty, and was also called "lonely" to his subordinates.

When quoting the Tang Dynasty, the Crown Prince was often called "Chu Jun" and "Lang Jun" by people around him. There are also people who call themselves "widowers", which shows that Shunzong talked with Wang when he was a prince. For details, see the Eighty-fifth Biography of Old Tang Dynasty: Wang is also from Yuezhou. Treat a letter with chess, know the outline of the book, and be reasonable. Dezong ordered the East Palace to go straight. The prince tried to talk to his attendants about politics and Taoism. Because of the disadvantages of the palace market, the prince said, "If I see it, I will talk about it to the extreme."

The emperor's address to his son: the intimate one can be called by his nickname, and he can be called by his first name at ordinary times, or he can be called "Jiu Lang", or what "~ er" is added after his name: for example, crown princes such as Huan Er and Dog call themselves "Ben Wang", "Ben Gong" or "I" at ordinary times, and they can also be called "Xiao Wang" modestly for servants. In addition to the emperor, queen or imperial concubine, it is also called "son minister".

Eastern Palace

abstract

In the feudal society of China, a series of official systems were specially set up to educate, coach and protect the monarch, so as to ensure the long-term inheritance of imperial power. In feudal society, conferring the crown prince is one of the important measures to consolidate the imperial power and stabilize the feudal ruling order. The place where the prince lives is called "East Palace", "Green Palace" or "Spring Palace". The poem Feng Weishuo refers to the prince in the East Palace, which is used by later generations. Therefore, the official of the Prince series is called the East Palace Official or the Palace Minister.

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The official system of the East Palace was founded in the Yin and Zhou Dynasties. "Tong Dian Zhi Guan Dong" contains teachers, Bao, Taifu and Shaofu at that time. A teacher and a young teacher know the way of father and son. The teacher teaches them to be practical and the protector is cautious. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the official system of the East Palace began to take shape, and its subordinate officials included doctors under the Prince, illegitimate children, Ma Xian (or washing horses) and Sheren. Zhan is in charge of the prince's family, setting up honesty, governing the prince's rate, family orders, servants, shields, healthy rate, kitchen and stability. There are also guests of the prince who praise etiquette and discipline mistakes, but they are not officials. A teacher in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the prince only cared about counseling, and regarded himself as a teacher, not a butler. The prince of Shaofu, because he is not here, has to manage both the advisers and all the princes' officials. If there is no prince, Scheeren will be transferred to at least the government, and the rest will be withdrawn.

In Jin Dynasty, Taifu and Shaofu were in charge of the East Palace. When pregnant with a prince, there are six blessings, later called three divisions and three little ones, namely, Prince Taishi, Prince Taifu and Prince Taibao; Prince Shao Shi, Prince Shaofu and Prince Shaobao. Later generations come down in one continuous line, but the number is different. From the Jin Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty, Zhan's family saved time and effort, and generally had family orders, many orders and many servants. In the Sui Dynasty, Zhan Shi in the province set up a door workshop, a temple bookstore, and left and right sides. In the Tang Dynasty, there were three temples besides Fang Ju: Prince Ke, Zhan Fu Tong Jia Ling and Zuo You Fu. There is also the East Palace Library, called Chongwen Pavilion. In the Song Dynasty, the officials of the East Palace were either appointed by other officials or kept or released, which was very uncertain. At the beginning, there were guests of the Prime Minister, politicians and princes. At the beginning, there were attendants reading and giving lectures, and there were officials such as Yishan in Zishantang, where the prince dropped out of school. In the Yuan Dynasty, the six houses were not permanent, and Zhan's house was also called Yuan, Chu, Chu and Gong's house, which was sometimes revoked.