北魏后宫选拔制度考略

The Imperial Harem Selection System in the Northern Wei Dynasty

北魏后宫制度是以等级制度为中心建立的。北魏后宫人员选拔以太和改制为界。太和改制前,后妃的选拔以周边民族为主,女官则出自罪臣家族;太和改制后,皇后大都出自外戚家族,而嫔妃则选自汉人门阀世族,并开始出现了贵族妇女任职女侍中的现象。由此,北魏后宫人员被牢牢控制在等级序列之中。

The imperial harem system is based on the hierarchy in the Northern Wei Dynasty. The system was changed after theTai Temple Reform. Before the reform, imperial concubines were selected from surrounding ethnic people, some female officers fromfamilies of condemned sin. After the reform, the queens mostly came from maternal families, and the imperial concubines wereselected from noble ethnic Han families; and some females from noble families became officers. In this way, all imperial females werecontrolled by a system of hierarchy.