The “Exotic” Pillars: The Imperial Lineage and Self-Identification of the Northern Qi Dynasty (550- 577)
Soojung Han (Princeton University)
PhD Candidate soojungh@princeton. edu
Address: Department of East Asian Studies 211 Jones Hall Princeton, New Jersey 08544
Scholars have long maintained the transitory nature of the Northern Qi dynasty (550-577), relegating its importance to merely one of connecting the Northern Wei and Tang dynasties. Much of the existing research on the Northern Qi dynasty have primarily focused on its origins and its influence on the succeeding Sui-Tang dynasty. The few in-depth explorations of Northern Qi surveyed the unique aspects of this period and follow traditional historiography in characterizing these features as simply abnormal or “exotic.”
In this paper, I examine three of these “exotic” features of the Northern Qi imperial family: intermarriages of Northern Qi imperial Princes, levirate marriages of Northern Qi emperors, and the fraternal succession system. I argue that these features are a reflection of the realpolitik in the bid to secure the Northern Qi imperial family’s “nomadic” identity. These practices served as pillars of stability for the imperial family that struggled with the dual identity of its progenitor, ethnically Han but culturally “barbarian,” and should be considered as more than just exotic phenomena. The key to understanding these practices comes from a closer study of Empress Dowager Lou (501-562) who stabilized the fraternal succession system as well as secured its “nomadic” identity as the successive dynasty of Northern Wei and Eastern Wei. This research reinterprets the Northern Qi dynasty as a source of stability in times of uncertain power and diplomacy, rather than as a source of abnormality.