Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

Patron-Client Relations in the Later Han

Bibliographic Data

ID3958949
AuthorsPatricia Ebrey, Patricia Buckley Ebrey (corresponding author)
Year1983
Volume103
Issue3
Pages533
Publication date1983-07-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the American Oriental Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0279 • E-ISSN: 2169-2289
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/602034
OpenAlexW2335680905
LanguageEN
Citations received19

During the second Century A.D., much of the social and political activity of upper class men was organized on the basis of private ties between superiors and inferiors. These patron-client ties were created every time a man took on a teacher, accepted an appointment as a political subordinate, or received a recommendation for office by an official. Clients were expected to show loyalty to their patrons, mourning for them if they died and supporting them in political disputes. Patrons had reciprocal duties and could loose their clients if they did not show them proper respect and aid. Although ties of locality underlay most patron-client relations, high court officials sometimes attracted students from all over the country. Patron-client ties could be extended beyond the two individuals involved to form networks of men linked to common patrons, and to the patrons of their patrons. These networks provided a means of organization outside the formal government system. The first to exploit these networks were the various consort family regents who periodically rose to power after A.D. 89. After 140 officials who opposed the power of the consort families and eunuchs relied on their own patron-client networks; confidence that their client would aid and protect them enabled provincial officials to attack the clients of their opponents. In the 170s and 180s, after the failure of the partisan movement, patron-client networks remained strong, incorporating many men excluded from office. With the end of the Han, however, the personal subordination involved in patron-client relations seems to have lost much of its appeal to upper class men, and links between individuals came more often to be made on grounds of common status and kinship

Chinese history and philosophy · History

  • A Tale of Two Stones

    Open Access•Miranda Brown, Zhongwei Zhang•Rulers and Ruled in Ancient…•2021

  • The religious and intellectual background

    Open Access•Michael Loewe•The Cambridge History of China•1986

  • Philosophy and religion from Han to Sui

    Open Access•Paul Demiéville•The Cambridge History of China•1986

  • Ch'in and Han law

    Open Access•A F P Hulsewe•The Cambridge History of China•1986

  • Han foreign relations

    Open Access•Ying-Shih Yü, Yu Ying-shih•The Cambridge History of China•1986

  • The Former Han dynasty

    Open Access•Michael Loewe•The Cambridge History of China•1986

  • The state and empire of Ch'in

    Open Access•Derk Bodde•The Cambridge History of China•1986

  • The structure and practice of government

    Open Access•Michael Loewe•The Cambridge History of China•1986

  • Wang Mang, the restoration of the Han dynasty, and Later Han

    Open Access•Hans Bielenstein•The Cambridge History of China•1986

  • The concept of sovereignty

    Open Access•Michael Loewe•The Cambridge History of China•1986

  • The economic and social history of Former Han

    Open Access•Nishijima Sadao•The Cambridge History of China•1986

  • The economic and social history of Later Han

    Open Access•Patricia Ebrey, Patricia Buckley Ebrey•The Cambridge History of China•1986

  • Between heaven and earth

    Open Access•Miranda Brown, Y Xie•Chinese Journal of Sociology•2015

  • Style, Patronage, and Confucian Ideals in Han Dynasty Art

    Open Access•Michael Nylan•Early China•1993

  • Ru Scholars, Social Networks, and Bureaucracy

    Open Access•Liang Cai•Early China•2019

  • The Cambridge History of China

    Open Access•Denis Crispin Twitchett, John W Chaffee et al.•The Cambridge History of China•1986

  • “People at the gate”

    Open Access•Thomas Crone•Bulletin of the School of…•2026

  • Recruitment Revisited

    Rafe De Crespigny•Early Medieval China•2008

  • Funerary spatiality

    Open Access•Lillian Lan-Ying Tseng•Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics•2012

Citations per year0.47
Citation span1986 - 2026 (41)
Highly citedNo

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae