Abstract:
As the royal family of the Northern Wei, Eastern Wei, and Western Wei, the Yuan family was the largest family in the Northern Dynasty. Due to its royal status, the marriage of the Yuan family had a significant social and political relationship with the society at that time. Marriage was an important tool for the Yuan family to integrate with various tribes and other ethnic groups in Xianbei, promote the sinicization of the Yuan family, win over Han literati, and strengthen its rule. It is now known that the Yuan family intermarried with more than one hundred Hu Han families, with over 400 marriages involving the main aristocratic families of Hu and Han at that time. The marriages between the Yuan family and Han noble families were mostly in the late Northern Dynasty. It is now known that during the Northern Dynasty, the Yuan family intermarried with more than 40 local Han noble families in about 134 cases. Through their marriages with Han noble families, the Yuan family further gained support from Han noble families, stabilized their rule in the north, and further learned Han culture during their marriages, accelerating their sinicization process. It is now known that the Yuan family intermarried with more than 30 Southern aristocrats, including the imperial families from the Eastern Jin to Liang dynasties. The marriage with the Southern aristocrats helped to learn Southern Dynasty culture and attract more Southern aristocrats to join this Northern Dynasty. The exploration of the marriage between the Yuan family and other noble families provides relevant academic materials and research perspectives for the Yuan family and related families, as well as the political and social studies of the Northern Dynasty.
