The Wangs were stunned. Although this woman's marriage has been pending for a long time, it was Wang Dan himself who rejected many famous families' marriage proposals. Now he proposes to marry her to a widower with a small family background and children. Even if Han Yi can stand out in the highly competitive imperial examination, the Wangs have always regarded this woman as the apple of their eye, and they still want to see her get married. However, Wang Dan has made up his mind. He resolutely interrupted the clan's noisy objection: "The people in the canal don't know about this." When writing this epitaph, times have really changed, and it is impossible to judge whether the scene about Wang Ren described in the epitaph really happened. But the important point-Han Yi was born less than the Wangs, and other historical materials can obviously prove it. So Miss Wang became the bride of Han Yi.
About a century and a half later, a wealthy landlord in Yiwu, southern China, met his own family problems. He Hui has been working hard for the well-being of his family all his life. Through his hard work, he became rich. As she wished, the eldest daughter married a Jinshi, and He Hui also wanted to arrange the same marriage for her second daughter. But the problem is that his younger brother He Ke, who just took the imperial examination, is rather bookish and urges a local scholar named Chen Liang to become He Hui's son-in-law.
Other relatives of He's family agree with He Hui that the future is bleak: Chen's family is poor, and although I have no lack of academic prestige, I just passed Cao's exam. He Hui was indecisive for a time, but at He Ke's insistence, He Hui finally said helplessly, "I would rather let my daughter not be excited than see my brother, so there is no peace." 11At the beginning of 65, Miss He married.
The two marriages in Song Dynasty were separated by 150 years, and the social and political status of the families involved was completely different, but (at least, that's what the recorder described) they were almost the same in some aspects. In both cases, we found that one elder was attracted by the academic potential of the prospective son-in-law, and there were other people with different values who felt that they were not suitable.
Wang Dan (957— 10 17)
Who did the Prime Minister marry?
Facts have proved that up to now, the main kinship between prime ministers includes their descendants, especially the intermarriage between their descendants. In other words, with a few notable exceptions, the affinity between the prime ministers was established after the political status of both families was deeply rooted.
Wang Su's sister (Wang Dan's daughter) married her son (Lv Gongbi), Fan Ju's grandson (Fan) and her son (Su Jian) respectively. Similarly, Jia Changchao's daughter married Pang Ji's son (Pang) and Song Yu's nephew (Song Huiguo) respectively; Li Jue's daughter married Wang Dan's nephew (Wang Duan), Chen Yaozuo's son (Chen Xigu) and Xiang Minzhong's grandson (Xiang Jiang) respectively. Wang Anshi is in-laws with Ceng Bu, Cai Jing and Wu Chong-such examples are endless. Although the historical data about the prime ministers of the Northern Song Dynasty are more detailed, which shows that this type of relationship is more obvious in this period, similar phenomena can be found in the Southern Song Dynasty.
In this way, it is common for Xiangmen to establish kinship with several other families with different political status; In addition, due to the multiple in-laws between contemporaries and descendants, the two prime ministers are often very harmonious.
Sometimes, two families simply exchange brides. As mentioned earlier, Wang Dan's daughter married Lv Yijian's son; Wang Yong, the eldest son of Wang Dan, married Lv Yijian's daughter.
In other cases, several women (sisters or cousins) from another family marry male descendants from another family. For example, Su Song's two grandchildren married Bi's descendants respectively. When the in-laws between two relatives are threatened by the premature death of their daughter-in-law, usually during childbirth, other women in the deceased family (usually sisters or cousins) usually marry a widower to restore balance. This misfortune can be seen from the marriage of Ponzi's two daughters to the same son of Song Yao, and also from the marriage of two four generations of descendants of Han Qi and Liu Xun who knew the Privy Council and participated in politics in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Lv Yijian (978- 1044), a famous politician in the Song Dynasty, was the nephew of Lv Mengzheng, a famous minister of the Zhen Dynasty.
Xiangmen also continues the in-laws relationship by constantly renewing the relationship. This blood relationship can be seen from the marriage between Han Qi's nephew and Han Qi's father-in-law's granddaughter, and the marriage between Wang Huai's son and granddaughter and Shi Hao's daughter and grandson respectively.
The descendants of the prime minister not only married each other, but also married the royal family. Almost all the earliest prime ministers in the Song Dynasty became royal in-laws: Fan Zhilai Sun (played by Fan Shide) married an imperial daughter; The son of Wei Renpu (Wei Xianxin) is still a princess, and his great-granddaughter married the imperial clan; Wang Pu's grandson (Wang Yiyong) is still a princess; The son of Zhao Pu (Zhao Chengzong) married the daughter of the princess; Shen Lun's grandson (Shen) married a royal daughter.
These marriages undoubtedly reflected the efforts of the emperor in the early Song Dynasty to strengthen unity with the dignitaries loyal to the new dynasty. Even after the rule of the Song Dynasty was completely consolidated, the intermarriage between the royal family members and the descendants of court officials continued. For example, Xiang's son married the great-granddaughter of the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty, and his great-granddaughter became the new queen. Han Qi's son is still his daughter, and Cai Jing's son is still his daughter. This practice also continued until the Southern Song Dynasty.
Just like the marriage between the descendants of the prime minister, the marriage between Xiangmen and the royal family usually lasts for several generations. Unlike most other families, the royal family will not be downgraded, and the benefits brought by these repeated marriages to the families of the parties are endless. It is probably not accidental that the closest relatives to the royal family are also prime ministers with the longest existence and the richest materials.
An ordinary "son-in-law"
However, not all politically significant marriages concluded by Xiangmen are attended by children of powerful families. Because sometimes, the sons-in-law chosen by politically prominent families-although they eventually made a fortune-do not have a prominent political or social position when they get married. The social significance of this relationship is completely different from the social significance of kinship between famous families, which needs further investigation.
We saw an example of this relationship in the marriage between Wang Dan's eldest daughter and Jinshi Han Yi. What prompted Wang Dan to ignore his own opinions? Wang Dan clearly opposed the view that Sheng's family was an effective measure to choose in-laws, and thought that the descendants of Sheng's family were often "arrogant and unruly". Although the author of the epitaph did not say what Wang Dan found in Han Yi, he clearly linked Wang Dan's choice with the fact that Han Yi had just been admitted to the Jinshi. The competition in the imperial examination is cruel. Hanyi 1002 entered the imperial examination. This year, the amount of imperial examination solution suddenly shrank sharply, while the previous scientific examination solution was still very plentiful. Han Yi's promotion to the top must have played an important role in Wang Dan's decision.
In a word, Wang Dan chose a son-in-law. Even if this son-in-law has not made a comeback, it has shown that his future is limitless. The passage of time proved Wang Dan's wise decision, because Han Yi not only became a participant in political affairs, but also compared with him, his two sons were superior in official positions. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, when it comes to the Han family, no one will think that it is inferior to the Wang family.
Han Yi (972— 1044)
In fact, the political status of most prime ministers' married families is very different, which is in line with the model that the father-in-law Gao Juexian and the son-in-law have unlimited future. According to Records of People in the Song Dynasty, Wang, who was born in poverty, was betrothed to his son-in-law by Li Ling, because Li Ling told his wife that Wang Zeng failed in the exam, but he would definitely be a public assistant in the future, while other historical materials revealed that Wang Zeng was the first in the exam. Neither Wang's great-grandfather nor Wang's great-grandfather is an official, but his father is the right-hand man.
Similarly, although the epitaph author of Chen Yaozuo's niece (Jia Changchao's wife) emphasized that her husband came from a lonely family, Jia Changchao was still unknown when they got married. This was confirmed in Jia Changchao's epitaph written by the same epitaph author. He pointed out that Jia Changchao was withdrawn and his mother taught him every day. Although Jia's political status seems to be higher than Lue Wang's, Jia Changchao's father and grandfather were both eight-grade officials, and his great-grandfather rose to the Jin Dynasty and served as a four-grade official in the Song Dynasty. A great-uncle also has similar official products, but Zeng and Jia Changchao are also the sons of a low-level official. But it is almost certain that this marriage was concluded after Jia Changchao became the top scholar, probably later than he was sentenced to imperial academy by Sun Ying alone. Jia Changchao was an enviable scholar at the beginning of 10 17, and was praised by Sun Xuan before 1023.
It is not difficult to see why this step is so attractive. Since there is no guarantee that the son of a senior official will follow in his father's footsteps, it seems more worthwhile to take a potential Jinshi instead of putting all your eggs in one basket in other developed families. At the very least, this is a reasonable way to avoid the risk of marriage betting.
From the perspective of new scholars, the marriage advantage brought by marrying the daughter of a senior official is obvious. On the father-in-law's side, young people will come into contact with other influential people and the actual operation of government policies. The following anecdote perfectly embodies this point:
Wang, Zeng and Li have observed the reactions of Wei and Xue Shangshu. One day, he paid tribute to Wang Dan, and the public got sick under the pretext. Xue feels unfair. Her husband Han Yi greeted him at the door. One day, he said, "Han Lang didn't consider this. Wang He and Xue are both Li's husbands. They came all the way. I'm afraid they will do something for the court. If the result is not feasible, it is harmless to stop it; If possible, what should I say? The taboo of being in power is also. " Han Naixie said, "I don't know." The result is that Li Wenjing has something to ask. (Tales of Song People, Volume V, Page 195)
Here we can see not only that Han Yi often accompanies his father-in-law, but also the most important political relationship between Weng Xu: the potential political goodwill and the process of cultivating his political practice. It is well documented that son-in-law-or at least the son-in-law of powerful people-is closely related to his father-in-law, and in some cases, they even live in his father-in-law's house.
The strategy of the strong: maintaining status through marriage
In the Song Dynasty, the prime minister's children married, his daughter married the royal family, and his son was a princess, and he accepted a promising young man as a son-in-law. These marriages revealed the relationship between politics and social status in Song Dynasty?
First of all, most of these behaviors reflect the simple tendency of those at the top of the power pyramid to marry other people with different status. In China's words, these are "suitable marriages": in other words, they conform to the long-held concept of China people that the best marriage is at least the combination of families with basically equal status.
For the prime minister, to arrange a suitable marriage for his children, we must first position ourselves, which helps to explain why Wang Dan's people are worried about the prospect that Wang Dan's eldest daughter will marry a person who is insignificant in politics or society. On a more practical level, the marriage between two politically important families immediately expanded the useful network provided to both parties. In an anecdote about Fu Xuan's ambassador (from Yipin) An Bing's widow and Wei Liaoweng's daughter, the importance of marriage decision-making is fully reflected. Anecdotal stories say that villagers are scrambling to marry the widow as a daughter-in-law: because they think she is related to two important families as an asset, but they don't regard her marriage as a defect. She finally married Liu, the sixth-generation grandson and fourth-grade official of Herry Liu, the prime minister of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Liu Zhi (1030— 1098)
At the same time, the intermarriage between the descendants of the prime minister is probably also a strategy: this kind of intermarriage is not only to flaunt the lofty status of the family at present, but also to enhance the family's eternal opportunity. This strategy is conservative to a certain extent, because the families who marry it have achieved success; Because of the repeated marriage of the same family-through the marriage of aunts (sisters take turns), aunts and cousins and the marriage of the world, conservatism is maximized. The marriage between the descendants of the prime minister is not limited to the same generation of men, which strengthens the effectiveness of this strategy. Equal marriage: prime minister's children marry each other, grandchildren marry each other. But more often, the children of the new prime minister (even brothers and sisters) talk about marriage with the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of those whose fathers and brothers were prime ministers.
Fan married Wang Dan's daughter, Wang Qinruo's granddaughter married her brother, her grandson married Kou Zhun's daughter, and Xiang Minzhong's grandson married Li Di's daughter ... There are countless examples, here are just a few, but the overall trend is clearly visible. Willing to accept officialdom upstart into their marriage network will almost certainly help maintain their position at an early stage. As a collateral descendant of a senior official, the personal privilege is limited, and a powerful father-in-law, uncle or grandfather is of great benefit to filling the vacancy.
Social mobility: from marriage to the door of power.
We can see from the prime minister's multiple marriages that the upward political mobility of the elite in the Song Dynasty can form upward social mobility, just as political apprentices provide people with opportunities to enter the prime minister's marriage network, otherwise this network cannot be open to people.
Just as successful families mainly choose their in-laws from other equal families, the marriage network of senior political elites is becoming more and more exclusive in society. However, if the success of official career is enough to improve someone's social status and give him an opportunity to enter the marriage network of prime ministers, the phenomenon of Jinshi's son-in-law shows that such political status is not always a necessary condition for entering those marriage networks.
Of course, political considerations are still the most important in the marriage between Gao Di Jinshi and the prime minister's daughter. Gaudi Jinshi was attracted by its unlimited political prospects. These marriages are comparable to those between the descendants of prime ministers, and the motive is to ensure that future generations have a place in the higher officialdom. However, no matter how potential it is, the new Jinshi himself does not have political power, and he is just an outsider to the social groups defined by this power relationship. Therefore, when the marriage between famous families promotes social exclusivity, the marriage with politically green Jinshi seems out of place-as the opposition of Wang Dan shows.
In a word, the marriage behavior of the prime minister in Song Dynasty embodies another form of social motivation. On the one hand, members of senior political elites defend their rights and privileges through various conservative strategies, such as taking other exams in the imperial examination and enjoying an advantage in recommendation, so that their children can marry the children of other officials. On the other hand, they supplement these conservative strategies in other ways, including using their power and influence to give preferential treatment to people with low status, such as sheltering budding scholars and marrying their daughters to potential scholars.
According to my observation, recommendation and marriage strategies overlap, just as elders choose their own students and recommended people as sons-in-law. People are full of hope and believe that the sheltered person or son-in-law will eventually succeed-this will not only enhance personal prestige, but also help ensure the prosperity of future generations. This strategy is not foolproof: budding scholars may wither, and scholars with great potential may lose their careers. But after all, it provides those successful people with an opportunity to recruit talents and absorb people who are well-read outside their own groups. This naturally opens a narrow road to the door of power for newcomers.