ABSTRACT
On several occasions in the history of Western Han, members of a certain family rose to occupy the highest places in the realm, owing to their close relationship to the throne, and if for any reason that relationship was threatened, prejudiced or severed, the fortunes of the family suffered abruptly and dra matically. On such occasions the demise of a family’s influence could involve sudden and merciless extermination; for such ruthlessness was essential if a rival family could hope to estabblish itself securely and without threat of retaliation. So it fell out with the families of Lii, Wei, Li and Huo, and later with several other families whose leaders had for a short time occupied the most powerful positions of state. When the Huo family fell in 66 b c none of its male members who had been appointed to high office survived, and the succession of the nobil ities which had been conferred upon them fell into abeyance. Only a few female members of the family lived on, bereft of the position which they had once enjoyed and of the powers they had been used to wield behind the scenes. These included Huo Kuang’s grand-daughter, the Dowager Empress of Chao ti, who was then still in her twenty-third year; and Huo Kuang’s daughter Ch‘eng-chiin, Empress of Hsiian ti from 70 to 66, when she was deposed from her noble station and relegated to the seclusion of a detached palace.
