Knowledge for Lineage: Queen, Keju and Social Mobility in Tang China
Keywords:
institutional transformation, Empress Wu, keju, social mobility, marital matching, Tang ChinaAbstract
This paper examines the transition from limited to open-access societies, focusing on early and high-Tang China (618–906). Using a dataset of 1,261 marriages from 618 to 755, we find that Empress Wu's rise to power in 674—the first and only female emperor in Chinese history—positively impacted upward mobility. After 674, men from common and poor clans were more likely to marry into elite clans. This increase in inter-class marriages was primarily driven by Empress Wu's expansion of national civil examinations, which strengthened her legitimacy and created new opportunities for social advancement.
Downloads
References (107)
Acemoglu, Daron, and Simon Johnson. 2023. Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity. New York: Hachette Book Group.
Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. 2005. Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. 2012. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. London: Profile Books.
Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. 2019. The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty. New York: Penguin Press.
Beramendi, Pablo, Mark Dincecco, and Melissa Rogers. 2019. “Intra-Elite Competition and Long-Run Fiscal Development.” The Journal of Politics 81 (1): 49–65.
Boix, Carles, and Milan W. Svolik. 2013. “The Foundations of Limited Authoritarian Government: Institutions, Commitment, and Power-Sharing in Dictatorships.” The Journal of Politics 75 (2): 300–316.
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Jean-Claude Passeron. 1977. Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. Translated by Richard Nice. London: Sage.
Callaway, Brantly, Andrew Goodman-Bacon, and Pedro H. C. Sant’Anna. 2021. “Difference-in-Differences with a Continuous Treatment.” arXiv Preprint arXiv:2107.02637.
Campbell, Cameron, and James Lee. 2003. “Social Mobility from a Kinship Perspective: Rural Liaoning, 1789–1909.” International Review of Social History 48 (1): 1–26.
Campbell, Cameron, and James Lee. 2008. “Kin Networks, Marriage, and Social Mobility in Late Imperial China.” Social Science History 32 (2): 175–214.
Chang, Chung-li. 1955. The Chinese Gentry: Studies on Their Role in Nineteenth-Century Chinese Society. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Chattopadhyay, Raghabendra, and Esther Duflo. 2004. “Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India.” Econometrica 72 (5): 1409–1443.
Chen, Chang’an, ed. 1991. Suitang Wudai Muzhi Huibian Luoyang Juan [Compilation of Epitaphs from the Sui, Tang, and Five Dynasties: Luoyang Volume]. Tianjin: Tianjin Guji Press.
Chen, Shuo, Xinyu Fan, and Zhichen Huang. 2023. “Noble No More: Keju, Checks and Balances, and Political Purges.” SSRN Working Paper. https://ssrn.com/abstract=4523770.
Chen, Shuo, and Debin Ma. 2020. “States and Wars: China’s Long March towards Unity and Its Consequences, 221 BC–1911 AD.” CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP15187. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3688136.
Chen, Ting, and James Kai-sing Kung. 2022. “Commercial Revolution in Medieval China.” SSRN Working Paper. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3960074.
Chen, Ting, James Kai-sing Kung, and Chicheng Ma. 2020. “Long Live Keju! The Persistent Effects of China’s Civil Examination System.” The Economic Journal 130 (631): 2030–2064.
Chen, Yinke. 2001. Tangdai Zhengzhi Shi Shulun Gao [Draft Outline of Tang Political History]. Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Press.
Chen, Yi, Ziying Fan, Xiaomin Gu, and Li-An Zhou. 2020. “Arrival of Young Talent: The Send-Down Movement and Rural Education in China.” American Economic Review 110 (11): 3393–3430.
Cheng, Cheng, David Stasavage, and Yuhua Wang. 2023. “The Written Word and the Development of the State in China and Europe.” Korea University Department of Political Science Working Paper Series.
CHGIS. 2016. 1820 Layers UTF8 Encoding. Harvard Dataverse, V1. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ST5KKM.
Clark, Gregory. 2014. The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Clark, Gregory, and Neil Cummins. 2015. “Intergenerational Wealth Mobility in England, 1858–2012: Surnames and Social Mobility.” The Economic Journal 125 (582): 61–85.
Clark, Gregory, and Neil Cummins. 2023. “Assortative Mating and the Industrial Revolution: England, 1754–2021.” LSE Working Paper Series.
Clark, Gregory, and Gillian Hamilton. 2006. “Survival of the Richest: The Malthusian Mechanism in Pre-Industrial England.” The Journal of Economic History 66 (3): 707–736.
Clots-Figueras, Irma. 2012. “Are Female Leaders Good for Education? Evidence from India.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 4 (1): 212–244.
Dai, Qian, and Zhaoxia. Bie. 2015. “Tudi Gaige, Jieceng Liudongxing Yu Guanliao Zhidu Zhuanxing: Laizi Tangdai Zhongguo de Zhengju” [Land Equalization and the Rising of Imperial Examination in Tang Dynasty]. Jingjixue Jikan [China Economic Quarterly] 15 (1): 53–84.
De Chaisemartin, Clément, and Xavier D’Haultfœuille. 2021. “Two-Way Fixed Effects and Difference-in-Differences Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects and Imperfect Parallel Trends.” SSRN Working Paper. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3980758.
De Tocqueville, Alexis. 1998. The Old Regime and the Revolution: The Complete Text. Vol. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ditter, Alexei Kamran, Jessey Jiun-Chyi Choo, and Sarah M. Allen, eds. 2017. Tales from Tang Dynasty China: Selections from the Taiping Guangji. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
Dong, Guodong. 2002. Zhongguo Renkou Shi: Suitang Wudai Shiqi [Chinese Population History: The Sui, Tang, and Five Dynasties]. Vol. 2. Shanghai: Fudan University Press.
Dribe, Martin, Jan Van Bavel, and Cameron Campbell. 2012. “Social Mobility and Demographic Behavior: Long Term Perspectives.” Demographic Research 26: 173–190.
Dube, Oeindrila, and S. P. Harish. 2020. “Queens.” Journal of Political Economy 128 (7): 2579–2652.
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. 1978. The Aristocratic Families of Early Imperial China: A Case Study of the Po-ling Ts’ui Family. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. 1991. “Introduction.” In Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society, edited by Rubie S. Watson and Patricia Buckley Ebrey, 1–24. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Eika, Lasse, Magne Mogstad, and Basit Zafar. 2019. “Educational Assortative Mating and Household Income Inequality.” Journal of Political Economy 127 (6): 2795–2835.
Elman, Benjamin A. 2000. A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Fernández, Raquel, and Richard Rogerson. 2001. “Sorting and Long-Run Inequality.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 116 (4): 1305–1341.
Fukuyama, Francis. 1998. “Women and the Evolution of World Politics.” Foreign Affairs 77 (5): 24–40.
Geddes, Barbara. 1994. Politician’s Dilemma: Building State Capacity in Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Geng, H. 2007. “Interpretation of the Wu Zetian Era: Writing Theory of the Compilation and Examination of Tang Dynasty Epitaphs.” The International Symposium Proceedings on Wu Zetian.
Goñi, Marc. 2022. “Assortative Matching at the Top of the Distribution: Evidence from the World’s Most Exclusive Marriage Market.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 14 (3): 445–487.
Gong, Yanming. 2021. Comprehensive List of Successful Candidates in Imperial Examinations in Chinese History. http://examination.ancientbooks.cn/docdengke.
Greenwood, Jeremy, Nezih Guner, Georgi Kocharkov, and Cezar Santos. 2014. “Marry Your Like: Assortative Mating and Income Inequality.” American Economic Review 104 (5): 348–353.
Guisso, Richard WL. 1975. The Life and Times of the Empress Wu Tse-T’ien of the T’ang Dynasty. Doctoral dissertation, University of Oxford.
Guisso, Richard WL. 1978. Wu Tse-T’ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T’ang China. Bellingham: Western Washington University.
Guisso, Richard WL. 1979. “The Reigns of the Empress Wu, Chung-Tsung and Jui-Tsung (684–712).” In The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 3, Sui and T’ang China, 589–906, Part 1, edited by Denis Twitchett, 290–332. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Herbert, Penelope Ann. 1988. Examine the Honest, Appraise the Able: Contemporary Assessments of Civil Service Selection in Early Tang China. Canberra: Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University.
Herbert, Penelope Ann. 1992. “Decree Examinations in T’ang China.” T’ang Studies 10–11 (1992–93): 1–40.
Ho, Ping-ti. 1962. The Ladder of Success in Imperial China: Aspects of Social Mobility, 1368–1911. New York: Columbia University Press.
Hong, Mingji. 2013. Tangdai Keju Mingjing Jinshi Yu Jingxue Zhi Guanxi [The Relationship Between the Mingjing and Jinshi of the Tang Keju and Confucian Classics]. Taipei: Wenchin Press.
Horan, Patrick M. 1985. “Occupational Mobility and Historical Social Structure.” Social Science History 9 (1): 25–47.
Hu, Ji. 1986. Wu Zetian Zhuan [Wu Zetian’s Biography]. Xi’an: Sanqin Press.
Ji, Chaoding. 1981. Zhongguo Lishishang De Jiben Jingjiu Yu Shuili Shiye Fazhan [The Basic Economic Zone and the Development of Water Conservancy in Chinese History]. Beijing: China Social Science Press.
Jiang, Qinzhi, and James Kai-sing Kung. 2021. “Social Mobility in Late Imperial China: Reconsidering the ‘Ladder of Success’ Hypothesis.” Modern China 47 (5): 628–661.
Johnson, David G. 1977a. The Medieval Chinese Oligarchy. Boulder: Westview Press.
Johnson, David G. 1977b. “The Last Years of a Great Clan: The Li Family of Chao Chün in Late T’ang and Early Sung.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 37 (1): 5–102.
Kracke, E. A., Jr. 1947. “Family vs. Merit in Chinese Civil Service Examinations under the Empire.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 10 (2): 103–123.
Kung, James Kai-sing. 2022. “On the Origins and Persistent Effects of the World’s First Meritocratic Institution.” Comparative Economic Studies 64: 563–581.
Lee, John. 1988. “The Dragons and Tigers of 792: The Examination in T’ang History.” Tang Studies 6: 25–47.
Lei, Jiaji. 2011. Wu Zetian Zhuan [The Bibliography of Wu Zetian]. Beijing: People’s Publishing House.
Lewis, Mark Edward. 2009. China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Li, Paoling. 2012. “Yifa Yu Yulun: Wu Zetian De Junzhu Wenhua Biaoxian” [Rituals, Laws, and Public Opinion: Empress Wu’s Monarchical Cultural Manifestation]. Feng Chia Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 24: 43–68.
Lin, Justin Yifu. 1995. “The Needham Puzzle: Why the Industrial Revolution Did Not Originate in China.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 43 (2): 269–292.
Liu, Liyan. 2008. Songdai De Jiating He Falv [Families and Laws in the Song Dynasty]. Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Press.
Lu, Caiquan. 1994. “Du Tangdai Muzhi Huibian Zhaji” [Notes on Reading the “Compilation of Tang Dynasty Epitaphs”]. Weijin Nanbeichao Suitangshi Ziliao [Historical Records of the Five Dynasties], no. 0: 64–69.
Ma, Hanguang. 1991. “Guanlong Jituan Hunyinguan Zhi Yanjiu” [A Study on the Marriage Circle of the Guanlong Bloc: Focusing on Royal Marriage Relations]. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica 61 (1): 1–40.
Magaloni, Beatriz. 2008. “Credible Power-Sharing and the Longevity of Authoritarian Rule.” Comparative Political Studies 41 (4–5): 715–741.
Mao, Hanguang. 2002. Zhongguo Zhonggu Shehui Shilun [Discussions on Chinese Medieval Social History]. Shanghai: Shanghai Shudian Press.
Marcassa, Stefania, Jérôme Pouey, and Thomas Trégouët. 2020. “Marriage Strategy among the European Nobility.” Explorations in Economic History 75: 101303.
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. 1848. Selected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. New York: International Publishers.
Meng, Xianshi. 2021. Wu Zetian Yanjiu [Study on Wu Zetian]. Chengdu: Sichuan People’s Publishing House.
Migdal, Joel S. 1988. Strong Societies and Weak States: State-Society Relations and State Capabilities in the Third World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Miyakawa, Hisayuki. 1955. “An Outline of the Naito Hypothesis and Its Effects on Japanese Studies of China.” The Journal of Asian Studies 14 (4): 533–552.
Miyazaki, Ichisada. 1976. China’s Examination Hell: The Civil Service Examinations of Imperial China. Translated by Conrad Schirokauer. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Miyazaki, Ichisada. 2020. Jiupin Guanrenfa Yanjiu: Keju Qianshi [Study on the Nine-Rank System: Pre-History of Keju]. Zhengzhou: Daxiang Press.
Mokyr, Joel. 2016. A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Moore, Oliver J. 2004. Rituals of Recruitment in Tang China: Reading an Annual Programme in the Collected Statements by Wang Dingbao (870–940). Leiden: Brill.
Naito, Konan. 1992 [1922]. “A Summary of Tang Song Times.” In Selected Translations of Japanese Scholars’ Research on Chinese History [Riben Xuezhe Yanjiu Zhonguo Shi Lunzhu Xuanyi], edited by J. Liu, 10–18. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.
North, Douglass C., John Joseph Wallis, and Barry R. Weingast. 2006. “A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History.” NBER Working Paper No. 12795. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
North, Douglass C., John Joseph Wallis, and Barry R. Weingast. 2009a. “Violence and the Rise of Open-Access Orders.” Journal of Democracy 20 (1): 55–68.
North, Douglass C., John Joseph Wallis, and Barry R. Weingast. 2009b. Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
North, Douglass C., and Barry R. Weingast. 1989. “Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England.” The Journal of Economic History 49 (4): 803–832.
Pareto, Vilfredo. 1968. The Rise and Fall of Elites: An Application of Theoretical Sociology. Totowa: Bedminster Press.
Piketty, Thomas. 2014. Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Puga, Diego, and Daniel Trefler. 2014. “International Trade and Institutional Change: Medieval Venice’s Response to Globalization.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 129 (2): 753–821.
Shiue, Carol H. 2020. “Social Mobility in the Long Run: A Temporal Analysis of China from 1300 to 1900.” CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP13589.
Shiue, Carol H., and Wolfgang Keller. 2022. “Marriage Matching over Five Centuries in China.” NBER Working Paper No. 30625. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Sorokin, Pitirim A. 1927. Social Mobility. Glencoe: Free Press.
Sun, Jun. 2021. Tangdai Tequan Jieceng Shihuan Yu Shehui Liudong Yanjiu [A Study of the Privileged Officials and Social Mobility in the Tang Dynasty]. Beijing: People’s Publishing House.
Svolik, Milan W. 2009. “Power Sharing and Leadership Dynamics in Authoritarian Regimes.” American Journal of Political Science 53 (2): 477–494.
Tackett, Nicolas. 2008. “Great Clansmen, Bureaucrats, and Local Magnates: The Structure and Circulation of the Elite in Late-Tang China.” Asia Major 21 (2): 101–152.
Tackett, Nicolas. 2014. The Destruction of the Medieval Chinese Aristocracy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center.
Tackett, Nicolas. 2020. “The Evolution of the Tang Political Elite and Its Marriage Network.” Journal of Chinese History 4 (2): 277–304.
Twitchett, Denis. 1973. “The Composition of the Tang Ruling Class: New Evidence from Tunhuang.” In Perspectives on the Tang, edited by Arthur F. Wright and Denis Twitchett, 47–85. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Twitchett, Denis. 1979. “Introduction.” In The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 3, Sui and T’ang China, 589–906, Part 1, edited by Denis Twitchett, 1–47. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Twitchett, Denis, and Howard J. Wechsler. 1979. “Kao-Tsung (Reign 649–83) and the Empress Wu: The Inheritor and the Usurper.” In The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 3, Sui and T’ang China, 589–906, Part 1, edited by Denis Twitchett, 242–289. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
van Leeuwen, Marco H. D., and Ineke Maas. 2010. “Historical Studies of Social Mobility and Stratification.” Annual Review of Sociology 36: 429–451.
von Glahn, Richard. 2016. An Economic History of China: From Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wang, Yuhua. 2022a. “Blood Is Thicker Than Water: Elite Kinship Networks and State Building in Imperial China.” American Political Science Review 116 (3): 896–910.
Wang, Yuhua. 2022b. The Rise and Fall of Imperial China: The Social Origins of State Development. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Weber, Max. 1978. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Edited by Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Wen, Fangqi, Erik H. Wang, and Michael Hout. 2024. “Social Mobility in the Tang Dynasty as the Imperial Examination Rose and Aristocratic Family Pedigree Declined, 618–907 CE.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121 (4): e2305564121.
Wu, Songdi. 2002. Zhongguo Renkou Shi: Liaosong Jinyuan Shiqi [Chinese Population History: The Liao, Song, Jin, and Yuan Period]. Vol. 3. Shanghai: Fudan University Press.
Wu, Zongguo. 2010. Tangdai Keju Zhidu Yanjiu [Keju in the Tang Dynasty]. Beijing: Peking University Press.
Wu, Zongguo. 2019. Zhongguo Shehui Bianqian Yu Suitingshi Yanjiu [Social Transition in Medieval China and Research on the Sui and Tang Dynasties]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.
Zhao, Xiaohua. 2006. “Wu Zetian Zhizheng Yu Luoyang Wenxue Fazhan Fenxi” [Analysis of Empress Wu’s Reign and the Development of Literature in Luoyang]. Yindu Xuebao [Yindu Journal], no. 2: 52–57.
Downloads
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Centre for Quantitative History
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The CQH Working Paper Series is a scholarly platform of the Centre for Quantitative History dedicated to facilitating the circulation of research. Copyright in each paper remains with the author(s). Authors publishing in the Series grant CQH a non-exclusive right to host, archive, and make the paper publicly available as part of the Series. Unless otherwise indicated, papers are distributed under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence.