600 REFORM OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONmale line of the feudal lords of large states, sage kings, or illustrious individu-
als. If there were no suitahle candidates from those categories. they might select
someone from the female line of descent from those individuals. "They did not
take [a spouse] from a low and base family and elevate her to the most respected
position [of empress 1. and it was for that reason that there was much good for-
tune and they (the rulers) had many illustrious male descendants." The longevity
of the Hsia, Shang, and Chou dynasties themselves was attributable to the wise
choice of empresses.
Candidates for empresses or queens also had to be women of virtue in the
three dynasties of antiquity, and the veracity of that policy was proved by the
examples portrayed in The Book of Poetry and The Book of History of dynas-
ties that fell because their queens were all depraved women. The empress had
to serve as a model for all the feudal states, but since it was difficult to judge
the potential of young girls for this role, the families and paternal ancestors of
the candidate had to be investigated instead. Fan felt that since the Chou there
had only been a few examples of empresses of illustrious virtue; the rest were
examples of how the wrong empress could lead to failure and confusion. His
own Sung dynasty. by contrast, had succeeded in choosing virtuous empresses,
and he hoped that this tradition be continued by constant consultation of the
ancient texts.
The bridegroom, whether king or prince, had to personally meet his bride and
accord her the utmost respect, as Confucius had advised, to symbolize the exalted
naturc of the relationship and elevate the stature of his empress or princess to a
level equivalent to his own, a relationship that Fan compared to that between
Heaven and Earth, sun and moon, yin and yang. Fan introduced this proposi-
tion into his proposal for procedure in the selection of the imperial consort not
because it was justified in any ancient ritual text, but hecause in the absence of
texts for imperial marriages emperors had been following the procedures used
by the scholar class (shih), which did not accord the bride respect on a level
equivalent to the bridegroom. Fan believed that it was uncivil to omit demon-
strations of respect for the bride, and that the lower or more vulgar customs of
the street or those of the barbarians should not be allowed to infiltrate the norms
of the forbidden palace. Current practice, therefore, had to be abolished and
revised according to his recommendation.
Finally, the choice had to be made with the full consultation of officials because
in antiquity the Son of Heaven consulted his high officials before making a choice,
his highest dukes accompanied him in proceeding to greet his betrothed, and
the feudal lords managed the wedding ceremony. Even in the Sung dynasty, the
Emperor lcn-tsung changed his mind in the selection of a spouse because of the
objections of some of the people at court. Fan argued that cven though some
might believe that the selection of an empress was a family matter to be decided
by the emperor himself without outside participation,
since ancient times many mistakes [in the selection of] rulers resulted from this