published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

Female intervention in government happened from time to time in Chinese history. The women involved were usually either ambitious individuals who made use of favourable opportunities to seize political power or daughters of powerful families whose marriages into the Imperial House were arranged in order to insure the power of their male relatives. In tracing the background of these women, we find that the former type often came from a non-Chinese or lower-class family while the latter type were usually Chinese and invariably had an aristocratic background. Although coming from different backgrounds these ladies shared the common characteristic that they were contented with the position they had as Empress or Empress Dowager. The further ambition of themselves ascending to the throne never occurred to them. The cases of female intervention during the Tang period were rather different from the above stereotypes. They were a succession of ambitious female members of the Imperial family who tried to follow in the footsteps of Empress Wu in order to rule the country both in name and in fact. Though none of them did succeed, their ambition and struggle was one of the major factors that influenced the political history of the first half of the eighth century. / Arts, Faculty of / Asian Studies, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

Han Yu is famous in Chinese history both for his literature and for his defense of Confucianism at a time when it was being seriously challenged by Buddhism and religious Taoism. Although his influ- ence was limited during his own lifetime, in later times Han Yu came to symbolize the conservative Confucian values that are often identi- fied with the traditional Chinese state. This study examines Han Yu's life and thought in an attempt to determine to what extent his later image as an ideal Confucian was or was not justified. A chapter on the historical background provides the context for Han Yu's biography, which is divided into five chap- ters. This is followed by a chapter discussing the intellectual back- ground of Han Yu's thought. Two further chapters discuss, first, the basis of Han Yu's conservative image, and, second, a number of his writings which illustrate the limits of his conservatism. Han Yu's ideas are related to the political and social circumstan- ces of his times, and it is found that while he is indeed a conservative and a Confucian, the extent of both his conservatism and his Confucian orthodoxy have been exaggerated.

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy