Politicization of Ritual Matters: Debates on “Two Principal Wives” (Liangdi) in Early Medieval China

Abstract

The tumultuous political environment of early medieval China gave rise to a social phenomenon known as liangdi 兩嫡, a situation in which a man kept two principal wives. This anomaly caused a great deal of confusion not only in terms of inheritance of title, rank, and property for the sons born of the two wives, but more importantly, in mourning observances by the sons for their mothers. To provide guidance for those involved in such situations, many discussions and debates around liangdi cases took place, both publicly among officials in courts and privately between colleagues and friends. This article, through analyzing four recorded discussions and debates on liangdi cases from the Jin dynasty (265–420), examines how a private issue of having two wives, resulting from the geopolitical conditions of civil war and segregation following the disintegration of the Han empire, became a public matter that had a profound ritual and political significance. At the heart of the politicization of ritual matters was the question of the political legitimacy of a newly unified empire.